Thread by @gauravsabnis

Forget puristry. Test cricket even now only exists because of the players who play test cricket. We fans can sit and armchair it all we want. Test cricket will only live until players want to play it. Dhoni walked away from tests for T20s. He could be a pioneer or aberration.

https://twitter.com/tweetsrihari/status/1452661954481430532

In pure economic terms, test cricket stopped making sense in the 90s. If it was all about the money and what fans want, test cricket would have died by now. We "purists" and "test enthusiasts" love to pretend we are the saviors of the game. We aren't. It's the players.

The last few years have been an absolute golden age of test cricket. In quality of cricket and even general following. But that's by test cricket standards. Revenue wise, test cricket is more an opportunity cost than anything. The only real stakeholders are the players.

Rohit Sharma has made enough money for seven generations and has a cushy T20 IPL gig for a while. Why is he out there opening in tests against some of the most lethal pace attacks of all time on challenging pitches? It ain't for the match fee!

Just think about it like an accountant. A test series is way more a cost center than a profit center for everyone involved. 2019 I watched an entire test match from the Andy Roberts Stand in the Viv Richards stadium for barely $10 a day. Over Bumrah's hand as he took 5 for 7.

The security guards were letting anyone sit anywhere because there were barely a couple of hundred people at the stadium to watch the test. But the guard said that for a T20I or even CPL, the same "on top of the bowler's hand" seats would go for at least $200. For 4 hrs.

So I paid less than $50 bucks to spend about 7 hours each day for 4 days (could have been 5) in the nicest seats in the house, watching some pretty high class cricket. $50/35 hours. For T20, they go at $200/4 hours. And that's just the revenue difference. Think costs.

The revenue is miniscule from tests. The costs are way more. You have to hire dozens of people for a week or two to get the stadium ready for a test match. That's a lot of payroll for a sport that is basically being watched by just the cameras. And even at home, by few.

If you think in plain simple economic planning terms, test cricket has no business existing. Us test cricket fans are notoriously stingy. I'm sure there are way more Manchester United jerseys on a random Rajkot street than Pujara jerseys.

So this whole awesome spectacle of test cricket, while enthralling these days, is not something that can be monetized too much on its own. Much like many other sports, it is sustained by those who play it more than those who watch it.