The editor of Cricket Statistician analyses recent events

SIMON SWEETMAN

Forget the Ashes. The five-Test series may be the jewel in the game’s crown, but it is dying.
Apart from the Ashes in Australia, the five-Test series only survives in England, and the two-tours programme puts it under threat even here. I suspect that people may not go on turning up to pay large sums for seven Tests a year, and in terms of attendances only India really merit a five-Test bash.
The heavyweight series coming up is South Africa against India, and that is three Tests, six ODIs, and three T20s. The f...