One of the most common positives emanating out of ODIs are, they have made test cricket more exciting and result oriented. More and more tests are ending in four days and even if there are draws, they are not as boring as they used to be earlier. In the last few years either the matches have ended in a meek surrender by one side or have been engrossing. Yeah, there have been boringly batting carnivals also but they are not very frequent. Like, in the recent India-Australia series, draw at Adelaide produced exciting cricket for 5 days and especially on the last day when the quality of cricket made the result a possible outcome almost till the tea. India-SA series started with a painfully boring draw but next two ended in results. Recent SA-England series started off with a draw but SA had to put a record breaking effort to avoid almost certain defeat.

Like the methodology followed earlier, lets look at the last 25 years by breaking the entire period into group of 5 years each. Here, I am not counting SA as they made a comeback to international cricket only in 1991-92 and other infants Zimbabwe & Bangladesh.

Table 1 shows the % of tests drawn for each of the seven test playing nations during the spans of five years for last 25 years. In this period each team played approximately 45 tests per year on an average with New Zealand & Sri Lanka averaging in 37-38 range and England & Australia averaging above 50 attributed to their well designed calendars.  

Table 1

For each of the team, % of draws is highest in the first period and it declines after that. Coincidently, with ODI world cup coming to subcontinent, this was the period in which number of ODIs played started increasing. Effect was probably visible in the next period. The most significant change is visible in Australia’s numbers. Obviously if they are given the credit to change the face of test matches by playing them more aggressively, the numbers show it. They need not have won them all, but their cricket has surely made sure that the matches they play are more result oriented.      

Table 2 shows the number of ODIs played by each of these teams. The period 1983-1988 is not counted for Sri Lanka as they got the test status in the middle of this period. India’s ODI per year increase significantly in the period 1993-1998 although they still played 50% of their tests as draws. This was the period when they were easily winning at home although the trend of lose the first test and draw the rest was the trend abroad. Australia’s ODI/year as been consistently increasing 1993 and the % of draws have been declining since then and declining by a significant number. One more interesting observation is – England has the minimum number of ODIs per year in the last two periods. Is it better scheduling by them so that the players do not burn out as England already has a very busy domestic calendar? Or is it that they are lesser in demand to be watched playing ODIs by their own crowd as ODIs have primarily become the function of demand by the viewers especially the fast food lovers. May be either England have more purist followers. They also have a huge soccer following – a segment T20 is trying to target. The story will become more clear with the EPL.

Table 2                                        

Just in case you have found it little difficult to glance through the tables, you can have a look the figure below. Red line displays the increase in number of ODIs per year from 1983-1988 to 2003-2008. Blue line indicates the drop in % of test drawn in the same period. The figure looks a bit like mirror image – increase in number of ODIs played causing more results in test matches.

Like any other analysis, this analysis is also debatable and invites various counter arguments like a draw is not just a function of style of playing but also opposition and venue matters. Like, in Chennai 2008, even Sehwag scoring a T20 style triple hundred, the dead track made bowling look innocuous and would not have produced a result even with a bonus day. But numbers do tell some trend.

 - Vibhash