Crash on cricket’s top 50 of the 21st century and the most provocative question about the sport’s future

As the new generation of cricketer helps T20 take over the cricket world, Robert Craddock asks the question few diehards want to ponder.

What does the future hold for Test cricket? Picture: Getty Images

The first two decades of the 21st century will be remembered as the era when cricket went bang.

Big bats. Big shots. Big bucks. Cricket became bite-sized yet super-sized all in the one sweeping, haphazard revolution.

Twenty20 leagues sprouted up in regions from Canada to Nepal and new cult heroes emerged from cricket’s version of frontierland — Afghanistan.

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David Warner has helped change the game for the better. Picture: AFP

Today we announce numbers 50-11 in our list of the greatest cricketers of the century and it’s dotted with stars who have not just shone in Test cricket but have taken the game’s shortest form by storm by riding the rhythms of a changing world.

David Warner (25), Brendon McCullum (36), Chris Gayle (34), Kevin Pietersen (22), Matthew Hayden (13) and AB de Villiers (12) proved they could be cavaliers no matter what colour of ball they were facing.

In their own special way, all of them were agents of change yet their games still had the old fashioned virtue that is a solid technique.

“The last 20 years have tilted cricket off the axis round which it had been revolving for the previous century and a half,’’ respected historian and The Australian columnist Gideon Haigh said.

“Significance used to be measured by quality of Test record. Today there are a great many more ways to ‘reach the top’, especially World Cups in ODI and T20 cricket, and domestic T20 leagues.

“It has been far more lucrative for Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo to be T20 troubadours rather than great Test players.’’

The agents of change who reshaped the face of cricket in the 21st century.

Don Bradman hit just six sixes in his Test career where these days some T20 players will do that in an innings.

Test players whose careers ended before the start of the century — like Australian and South African batsman Kepler Wessels — can identify with the changes in the game right down to the size of the bats.

“Whenever I pick up one of (his son’s) Rikki’s bats it hits me how unbelievable they are,’’ Wessels said.

“I honestly believe they would hit a ball 30m further than our old ones. Instead of being caught on the fence the ball would sail over his head. They are sensational.’’

Allan Border knows how his former teammate Wessels feels for he had said many times the power generated by modern bats is something that takes his breath away.

Matthew Hayden has his first Test bat framed at home and says when he looks up at it in all of its unsophisticated glory he often wonders how it scored so many runs for him.

Rahul Dravid was one of the sport’s finest Test batsmen.

Our list reflects a crossover of generations for there was also space for cultured Test players like England’s Alastair Cook (23), India’s Rahul Dravid (17), Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf (32) who, in their own, unflustered way, became even more precious as the world sped up around them.

Batsmen are not necessarily better, but they are better armed and bristle with intent.

“Even net sessions have a different sound to when I first started,’’ Fox sports commentator and former Test anchorman Mike Hussey said.

“We might have concentrated on defence and even leaving the ball but now you can hear the ball being thrashed and the sound is really loud.’’

AB de Villiers dominated all three forms of the game. Picture: Getty Images

The most provocative question is what cricket will become over the next 20 years. Will T20 take over the world? Will Test cricket even continue to exist?

Hussey said he never felt that the allure of the baggy green Test cap was fading during his career but he did ponder whether that moment would come.

“I was transitioning at the back of my career when T20 came in. Test cricket was still pinnacle but because T20 was such a success I did wonder what the game would be in 20 years,” he said.

“I hope players of the future will still cherish the baggy green and Test cricket and that is where Virat Kohli has been fantastic in that space. He appreciates the importance of Test cricket and hopefully that will inspires millions and Indians – and some Australians – to feel the same way.’’

Originally published as Crash on cricket’s top 50 of the 21st century and the most provocative question about the sport’s future