Paul Lewis: Finances fine but soul in dire straits

In India, they are apparently producing a new soft drink, made from cow's urine. In England, West Indies cricket captain Chris Gayle has come under heavy fire for saying that he "wouldn't be sad" if test cricket died.

If you're not getting the connection, one is cow's urine. The other is bullshit.

The new Indian drink called gau jal (cow's water) is supposed to be launched by the end of this year to compete against imported soft drinks like colas.

"Don't worry, it won't smell like urine and will be tasty too," a spokesman told The Times back in February. "Its USP will be that it's going to be very healthy. It won't be like carbonated drinks and would be devoid of any toxins." Hurrah.

Gayle was wrong to talk about the death of test cricket while purporting to be a test skipper, albeit a reluctant one. But his advocacy of Twenty20 cricket only echoed what most of the world's players think.

Earlier this month, this newspaper broke the news that a staggering 45 per cent of New Zealand's elite cricketers believe an IPL contract is actually the pinnacle of the sport, not tests.

In March, more than half Australia's top cricketers said test cricket was not the ultimate version of the game. More than a third of English first-class players said last year they would consider retiring early to play in the IPL - a figure which has almost certainly risen now.

Gayle came across as a bit of a boob; his comments a knee-jerk response to criticism by England captain Andrew Strauss that Gayle had stayed in India too long, counting his IPL cash.

But Gayle's words fell like acid rain on the cherished memories of proud West Indians like Vivian Richards, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Gordon Greenidge, and Gary Sobers. It is impossible to picture any of them bleating there was too much international cricket and that England at this time of year is "too cold".

His body language in the test series against England was the very picture of a man who did not care; whose interest had reduced as much as his bank balance had risen. But he was just being too cool for school. See ... I don't care about this test cricket played in front of no one in sub-arctic conditions.

Gayle has always been a renegade; anti-establishment. The management theory of promoting the rebel to leader doesn't always work. You know a lot about Gayle when you remember the story about him being bored rigid by an MCC blazer type on a previous tour; when the blazer droned on and on about statistics; history; and the minutiae of the game.

Gayle ended the conversation by saying, in that lazy drawl: "So maaan, do you get much pussy?"

But it wasn't Gayle who allowed cricket to be steered down the highway of cash. That was the game itself and those who administer it, the ICC and member nations. Ironically, the game is in the best financial state ever. But its soul is in danger.

India might have accelerated the process of 'hit and giggle' endangering that soul, sure, but they didn't start it. They are as subject to it as anyone. In the cricket nation acknowledged as the most passionate in the world, only about 5000 people turned up at Chandigarh last year to see Sachin Tendulkar, arguably the greatest batsman of modern times, become the highest runs scorer in test history.

It wasn't India who allowed West Indies cricket to fall into a hole that seems too deep to regain past glories. That was typified by the test between England and West Indies called off this year because the Vivian Richards stadium pitch and outfield weren't up to standard; most self-respecting sheep would have refused to graze on it.

It wasn't India who swooned and fell into bed with Sir Allen Stanford's vulgar millions, one of the most distasteful actions in global cricket history.

Test cricket will not die. It will outlast T20 when short-attention-span fans grow bored with the slogfest. Test cricket has tradition and a level of skill and intellectual application that no other form of the sport has.

Top players know in their heart of hearts, no matter how enticing the T20 money shaping those player surveys, that a test is best. But T20 will plainly not go away soon and it must always be recognised that the only constant in life is change.

Managing that change is the key. In the past, it has been enough to sit back and watch the appalling attendances at test matches be assuaged by the money gained from broadcasting matches to the global cricket diaspora.

But something of the soul of a game is lost when TV pictures are distributed showing that few went to see it - and then increasing the frequency of such games to get more broadcasting dosh. Rugby in this country is finding that out.

It's not enough to propagate the myth that test cricket is the pinnacle of the game while your actions say otherwise. Who can blame Gayle and his ilk for following the money? It's what the ICC have done.

The ICC must regain control of their sport; to find a way to market, promote and incentivise test cricket for players and fans alike. Cut the number of tests played globally. Less is more. Find a way to make the global test championship happen and matter.

If not, cricket could become a clownish version of itself - and we might as well all go down the road and have a bottle of cow's urine.