These days cricket seems to be losing its charm.  This year has seen at least 3 series which were boring to say the least.  It all started with tri series hosted by Zimbabwe which involved second string Indian and Sri Lankan teams led by Suresh Raina and Tilakratne Dilshan.  Suresh Raina had not even played a Test match before being chosen to lead India in the tournament while Tilakratne Dilshan was a fringe player not too long back. While one has got accustomed to seeing matches of those kind in one dayers what is surprising is Test Matches too have followed the same pattern .

The MCC spirit of the Test Series played in July 2010 was special in a way because it involved the rival teams Australia and Pakistan played in a neutral venue England but that proved to be the only interesting point in the series.  Except for their skipper Ricky Ponting who is easily one of the all time greats,  Australian team hardly had any reputed stars and that in itself disinterested viewers and if that was not enough Pakistan were led by Shahid Afridi who had the dubious distinction of playing a mere 27 tests in a 12 year career.  What disappointed viewers was the fact that depleted yet reasonably strong Australia and Pakistan who could not even boast of having a second string team were locked in a 1-1 drawn series and that spoke of mediocre cricket.

 The ongoing test series between England and Pakistan too seems to be going on the same lines.  England without the likes of retired Flintoff and out of form Kevin Pietersen has been ruthless in their demolition of Pakistan in the first test match and though Pakistan seem to have a slight edge at the end of second days play in the third test even a win for them is not going to help their cause or do any good for world cricket.

There was a team when cricketing contests involved Sunil Gavaskar brave knocks against the feared West Indies pacemen and subsequently Sachin's heroic knocks against the likes of Wasim Akram, Allan Donald and Mc Grath and even though Sachin is still there there are hardly any big names in international cricket and that has made up for boring test cricket. This issue needs to be addressed by ICC as it is better to have fewer matches involving big names than have many number of matches with second string teams.  The above formula is vital for the survival for Test Cricket which is under the threat of T20.