Test cricket is almost dead, long live Test cricket

There is definitely more to the ongoing England-West Indies Test series than meets the eye. And not just because it pits the inventors of the game against its most popular practitioners.

I always felt West Indies' plight is inseparably entwined with that of Test cricket. Or vice versa.

Since the sun set on the Windies empire, the Australian hegemony ran its full course and then the pretenders to the throne, the antipopes -- India and South Africa - staged another coup. By then, West Indies had covered the entire gamut between sublime and farce.

Uncannily, Test cricket's fate has not been different either. First it lost ground to ODIs and now Twenty20 threatens to mothball it and put on display in a museum for hopeless romantics, and reluctant students, to rue its demise.

Lying on her deathbed, Test cricket can only hope for a graceful death. Fortunately, ICC backs euthanasia.

But lo and behold! Just before you bury the seemingly soulless carcass, you realize there is enough life left in the body to throw up the kind of drama which is beyond the realm of younger formats.

The Sabina Park massacre was a throwback to the Windies pomp, a blast from the past, an atavism that warmed the cockles. And the Great Escape at Antigua Recreation Ground proved that at times, a draw can be the most exciting of all outcomes.

What happened in between at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium is backstabbing and both ICC and WICB officials have blood on their hand. Apparently, they can't wait to let it die a natural death.

Test cricket is almost dead. Long live Test cricket.