So no England Test until August again?

HUW TURBERVILL: The World Cup dominated 2019, Covid-19 likewise in 2020. But what is the excuse for next summer's schedule, which could see us forced to wait until the late summer for an England Test?

• ECB reveals 2021 international plans
• England to return to Pakistan for T20s

I know there is a pandemic, and full praise to the ECB for their efforts last season, but a pattern appears to be developing now.

We waited until July 8 – totally understandably because of Covid – for Test cricket to start in the summer just gone when England’s men played West Indies at the Ageas Bowl.

And in the summer of 2019 – totally understandably because of the World Cup – we waited until August 1 for the Ashes to begin. It’s a long wait for us Test fanatics.

The first Test against India will hopefully begin on August 4. All five Tests will be played in 41 days. That’s gruelling, although they’ll probably want to get on with it, if in a bio-bubble again.

Even the 2019 Ashes wasn’t quite so punishing – five Tests in 47 days. It’s all a bit sad. 

I should add that there is a possibility that New Zealand could come for a two-Test tour in June, and the small matter of the World Test Championship final at Lord's. But it’s all a bit uncertain.

You could normally build your summer around Test matches. They’d start fortnightly, on Thursdays. The anticipation and hunger for the next one would build through the eight gap days (I’m not counting the lovely county knockout match on the BBC on the Tuesday after).

^{The Test summer will not end at The Kia Oval, as with previous years}

Touring teams don’t want to hang around now, though.

Seven Tests, as it was from 2000, the first full year when Channel 4/Sky took over live coverage, was one too many. Andrew Strauss, soon after he took over as England’s director of cricket in 2015, indicated he wanted six Tests – plus six one-day internationals and six T20Is: 6-6-6, the devil was in the detail.

We had six last summer, with Pakistan the other tourists. In 2019, Ireland played a Test, making up the six, albeit that was a four-dayer.

The other eye-catching thing about next summer’s Test schedule is the return of the five traditional venues – Trent Bridge, Lord’s, (Emerald) Headingley, The (Kia) Oval (still not back in its rightful spot as the finale), and (Emirates) Old Trafford.

Next summer's grounds were chosen pre-Covid but there is no sign of the Ageas Bowl, which rode to the rescue last summer. If they don’t get an Ashes Test in 2023, Rod Bransgrove may understandably be somewhat peeved.

Edgbaston is also an odd omission from the India Test series given Birmingham's substantial South Asian population.

To be fair, Test fans have had a good run of it. You have to go back to 1999 for an English summer of fewer than five – four against New Zealand, after the World Cup in the UK. 

That was the same number/opponents in another World Cup year here – 1983.

^{India return to English shores in 2021}

Go back a long way and the schedule was dominated and dictated by the counties, however. In 1932 there was just one three-day Test, against India. The summer before there were three three-dayers, against New Zealand. The counties would not allow any more.

Hopefully, once the pandemic is under control we can enjoy a less-congested spread of Test cricket across the summer.

Sir Ian Botham remains a fan. In an interview in the forthcoming December issue of The Cricketer, out on November 27, he said: “I think everyone knows my biggest love is Test cricket. The reason it’s called Test cricket is that it’s a five-day Test: physical, mental, stamina, concentration.

"Historically the best players will always come from the Test arena. They can go and play in the T20 and one-dayers, but you don’t see many people play T20 then come into Test cricket. Maybe one or two have done it. I know on the subcontinent T20 is their starting point now. 

“If we ever lose Test cricket you might as well forget it. It’s the end. When I hear people say: ‘Let’s play four-day Test cricket’… [I think] leave Test cricket alone! The best come through, and the best want to play it.”

The other big announcement on Wednesday was about England’s return to Pakistan in October. I did chuckle when it was described as a ‘tour’. With just two T20s, that seems a stretch. It’s a welcome development, nevertheless.

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