England vs India: 1,000 Tests, 141 years – this might be Test cricket’s pinnacle moment in game’s history

England cricket team will create a history on Wednesday, August 1, by becoming the first team on this planet to play in 1,000 Test matches. They started playing in the year 1877 when they lost a game against Australia in Melbourne by 45 runs.

Of the 999 Tests that England have played in the last 141 years, they have won 357, lost 297 and drew 345 with the second best success rate of 35.73 per cent after Australia’s 47.16 per cent. England might not be the world rulers in Test cricket as they were more than a century ago but the glory they will achieve by becoming the first team to play four-figure Test matches might remain unmatched for eternity.

Test cricket is not getting any popular and amid the mindless businesses surrounding the game, there is every possibility that we might not see another nation entering the exclusive club of which the Brits will be the first member.  The second team in the list is Australia and they are far behind with 812 Tests.

England’s feat of playing 1,000 Tests is perhaps the last major moment of glory to cherish for the game’s traditionalists. This is a moment which the youngsters might only see as a statistical high (the effort of finding an all-time best England side was already messed up and it was done perhaps because the country’s mammoth Test history was too big for the T20 age fans to cover and fathom) but for those who still feel that the real pulse of cricket lies in its longest format, the glory is not something that can be objectively measured.

Remembering the legends

Whether one remembers the origin of the Ashes or the Bodyline series or the timeless Test or the elderly cricketers like WG Grace and Wilfred Rhodes or how Sir Ian Botham led from the front to turn the tables on Australia after England were forced to follow-on, the romanticism associated with England’s cricket just refuses to wane. The country has produced so many cricketers of massive stature that one might still miss out a name or two while listing more than one squad of immortal English cricketers.

In the increasingly shrinking world of cricket (the overs, the quality), the Brits are still a side whose cricketing greatness is measured by their Test glory. In the limited overs, England yet do not have feats of international reputation (the T20 world title in 2010 might be the only exception) and that makes its achievements in Tests the yardstick for real cricketing success.

The figure 1,000 might look like a phenomenal number but it also signifies a historical triumph – a magnificent continuity over the ages that assert England’s fading nationalistic stance all over again. For the traditional Britons, this is a moment that serves as a time machine – to relive the time when the sun had never set in the British empire.

One thousand Tests over 141 years lay down the reason why the Test format is still the king of cricket. It is a document which regains its glory lost with the upward decline of the human race and those who are convinced that the days of Tests are over, they need to think again by rewinding its story – what it has given us and what we are not giving it back.

For the minnows and the beginners who find Test cricket a hard nut to crack, it is important to take a cue from England’s rich history and learn the art of tenacity and perseverance first. They are significant even more than cricketing skills to last a distance.

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