Cricket on a sticky wicket in popularity contest

Last week, with Australia having scored 138 runs for the loss of two wickets on the first day of the second Ashes test at the Adelaide Oval, four of the game’s most respected minds and former practitioners stood on the pitch and debated what hope, if any, there was for the future of Test cricket.

England and Australia have been testing each other in the game’s traditional, long format since 1882.

The intensity of their rivalry is apparent simply in the fact that both have claimed 32 series wins and over 50,000 spectators were packed into the impressively redeveloped ground to take in the first ever day/night test in Ashes history.