The truth is finally being acknowledged; test cricket is in danger of dying.

you are funny sir

Funny but they have a fair point. I work In security and have worked at Old Trafford on a few occasions when Lancashire have played a test match and there must be about 100 people in the entire ground, and that includes the players.

I'm not saying that test match cricket used to be packing out the stadiums on a weekly basis, and as I said before I enjoy watching it still, but I don't want to see it die a slow and painful death and at the moment it is doing. Maybe it IS time to at least cut down on the amount that teams play, maybe limit it to international cricket only?

????? I'm guessing you mean a First-Class County Championship match. Lancashire have never played a Test match.

Not quite sure what you mean re: the second bolded point. International teams are the only teams that play Test match cricket.

Forgive the wording of my last post, when I called them 'test matches' what I was referring to was the longer format of the game, the 3-5 day games as in the county championship games. (I think you knew that though)and in regards to the second point, the test matches (or the longer format of the game) should now only be played by the international teams and see if that makes a difference in the attendances in the future, and maybe that might entice the younger crowd into going watching it again?

How do you propose players getting experience playing the longer format of the game if you eliminate first-class cricket? That would be the equivalent of getting rid of league football and only playing international games, and the odd five-a-side match.

First-class cricket is a totally different format of the game to T20 and ODIs, and requires a different skill sets. Players need to be playing the longest format of the game on a regular basis in order to improve.

For what its worth:  More than 2.3 million people attended international and domestic matches in England last year - an all time high.

More than 560,000 fans watched England in Test matches last year. In addition, 513,000 people attended County Championship matches – up from 495,000 last year, while more than 200,000 fans attended the 72 Royal London One-Day Cup matches – an increase of around 500 per match on the previous year.

When everyone just runs sprints no longer need to train anyone to run marathons...

advocating 4 day tests, 73 of the 215 Tests played in the Times cycle (2011 to now) would have ended in draws, not positive results

...and for those 73 matches fans got nuthin but a four day net session.... ::yawn::

That's one of the main issues I think when you ask anybody why they aren't fans of watching test matches. The common response is that they don't see the point of playing for that many days and the game fizzling out into a draw.

People obviously like watching the game of cricket but at the same time they want a definite outcome at the end of it, and with test match cricket that isn't always possible.

Except draws in Test match cricket are at an all-time low.