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After the overwhelming response that the T20 format of the game has received, there has been a lot of discussions of late suggesting that there the future of Test Cricket is in grave danger. These dangers seem to be triggered by a simple combo of the increasing popularity enjoyed by the shortest form of the game i.e. Twenty-20 cricket and the decreasing no. of crowds coming to watch Test Matches in few parts of the cricketing world.

So let’s have a glance at some of these recently evolved issues and see what’s actually going on. One key point to take note of is that more and more money is being invested into the gentleman’s game of Cricket in India where Cricket is equivalent to religion, multiplying the significance of this cricketing country by miles. It’s easily also the cricketing nation that has the highest number of cricket fans all over the globe.

All these things are implying a big impact on the game of Cricket as a whole. The overwhelming response received by the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been able to brought exciting matches to a comparatively large, global audience. It’s also crystal clear that the crowd levels in the Test Matches played in India looks to be on the much lower side than those for the fast paced IPL matches and 50 over from of the game. The matter of concern is though does this really signify the problems ahead?

In England where Cricket was first played, domestic T20 matches get more attendance than the 4 day County Championship matches. Quite same picture can be observed in other major Cricketing nations of the world.

So, do all these negatives imply that it’s the end of the age old Test Match cricket? It looks tough to believe that it could actually be, although many countries may put more importance on specific forms of the game. Risk factor associated with it can never be neglected, but as a matter of fact it might be best if we all just accept that the latest form of the game offers newer opportunities and aids in bringing more crowd into the game from more parts of the world.

Anything that render cricket into a more popular sport has to be an awesome thing for the game. One very important group of people in all of this will certainly be the players. As long as they continue preferring Test cricket to be the ultimate test field, it appears a certainty that this age old form of the gentleman’s game will survive.