Miss the next generation to embrace Test Cricket? No chance...

In the final instalment of the articles about Rebecca Duffy's Test Cricket campaign, Testing Times XI, she will speak about the petition that will help save Test Cricket from being unknown to many people and the importance of her gradually popular online petition after the recent postponement of the inaugural ICC Test Championship until 2017. Also, the recent sparse crowds in Kolkata from the matches between West Indies and India show the evidence of the rapid decrease of the popularity of Test Cricket in a cricket mad nation of India. So what is all the wait for? 

The truth about a petition...

An online petition isn't going to change anything, it guarantees nothing and it's not an end in itself. Our petition isn't actually going to "protect" or "preserve" test match cricket by itself. 

The purpose of a petition is to demonstrate a level of support for something; it's an opening gambit or a bargaining chip. It says that you are serious about something and you have other people who think the same way: it's a calling card. 

The Testing Times campaign is about demonstrating a strength of feeling to cricket authorities. We're not saying that we should have more test matches because we like them best; we're saying that this form of the game provides the ultimate challenge and will truly show which teams and which individuals are the best in the world over a meaningful series. 

Will a three-match test championship tell us who's best, whether it's held in 2013 or 2017 or 2199? No, of course not. But what the ICC has shown today is that it will sacrifice probably its best idea in years as its own opening gambit. The message it sends is that test cricket is expendable in the name of convenient packages to market to broadcasters. 

Similarly, Testing Times is under no illusion that the ECB will respond positively to our short-term goal of rearranging the series against South Africa to accommodate an additional test match in 2012. However, we would like to be able to present YOUR voice to the ECB and tell them that the fans are dissatisfied with the balance of the cricket played in various formats, especially in a series that they themselves labelled "iconic" only three years ago. 

So we ask you to spread the word and get names on to the petition; not just because you'd like to see one extra test in England next year or because you liked the idea of a test championship but because you want YOUR voice heard and that YOU want to make sure that the balance between ALL cricket formats is appropriate. 

Testing Times is about getting the balance right. And we need your help.

"As cricketers, we want to see the ICC make decisions that are the best for the game and I'm not sure that's happened now. Waiting another five years, you can skip a whole generation in that time."- Graeme Smith, South Africa Captain