With Test cricket facing a challenge from the action-packed Twenty20 version of the game, Australia captain Ricky Ponting recently came up with a simple idea to make the five-day game more exciting -- bring back fast bouncy wickets.
- Scorecad
The first day of the third Test at the Kensington Oval proved his point perfectly with a lively surface producing a lively game of cricket.
Australia ended a rain-shortened day on 226 for seven -- with the rare sight of sixes hit in the first session of the first day, three Australians getting out hooking rising deliveries and West Indies bowlers banging in plenty of good, old-fashioned bouncers.
Ponting's comments came after a largely uninspiring drawn test in Antigua played on a deadly dull flat and slow wicket that predictably delivered dull and slow batting and bowling.
After Thursday's play, Australia coach Tim Nielsen backed up Ponting's position by noting the different style of play in the two Tests.
"You saw brilliant batting today at different times -- brilliant cut shots and pull shots and drives on the up. It wasn't like it was dangerously bouncy," he told reporters.
"The contrast was just so great. That's why it was exciting to watch today and really good Test cricket. Players were really challenged, it was a good test of their skills, and that's what we have really come to watch," he said.
EXTRA ZIP
Australia's batsmen relished the extra zip of the Barbados track so much that they were rattling along at over four an over for most of the day.
"I think right from the word go we saw the ball coming on to the bat and even all during the week in training the boys have really been enjoying the fact they can play a few shots and we've been talking about that a bit," he said.
"So we probably played the penalty a bit today for lapses in concentration .... but also that's why it's great to watch cricket on these sorts of wickets.
"The margin for error is reduced so that the good players get runs and the good bowlers get wickets. That's what Test cricket is about."
Ponting told the Sydney Morning Herald that getting more spring in the track produced the sort of enthralling battles that made test match cricket the pinnacle of the game.
"There's more bouncers, more batsmen ducking and weaving and sometimes falling on their backsides, more catches behind the wicket, more hook shots. That's the sort of test cricket that we all grew up watching and enjoying," he said.
"That's what I would be saying to all the authorities around the world: let's just try and do something with the wickets. If it means digging them up and relaying them then let's try it. It's obviously not working too well at the moment."
