Different shades of the game
Ramachandra Guha, writing in the Telegraph , compares the three different forms of cricket to alcoholic beverages, and makes it amply clear which form he prefers.
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
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Ramachandra Guha, writing in the Telegraph, compares the three different forms of cricket to alcoholic beverages, and makes it amply clear which form he prefers.
In my opinion, Test cricket may be compared to the finest Scotch, 50-overs a side to Indian-made foreign liquor, and Twenty20 to the local hooch. The addict who cannot have the first or the second will make do with the last.
He continues ...
But proper cricket can only be Test cricket. Spread out over five days, the game unfolds as in an epic drama. No restrictions are placed on anyone. The bowler can bowl 40 overs at a stretch; the batsman plays on until he gets out. Even the fielder has greater opportunities to display his wares. He can (as in limited-overs cricket) dive to his left at cover point to stop a boundary; and he can also (unlike in limited-overs cricket) dive to his right to take a low catch at short leg. In this long, leisurely, civilized form of the game, a villain is allowed to redeem himself, a hero to reveal his flaws, a team to show reserves of character one could have scarcely thought it possessed. As with the finest Scotch, one savours every sip; and yet, as with the finest Scotch, the whole is infinitely greater than the parts
Ashok Ganguly is an editorial assistant at Cricinfo