My new year resolution is to spend at least 30 minutes every day at the gym. And so here I am on the treadmill and thinking profound thoughts about the future of Test cricket. The sight of the ungainly shots played by the Englishmen in that two day abomination of a Test match in Melbourne in front of a hundred thousand fans has scared me. Will the joy of watching a well fought session in the lazy afternoon sun at the Eden or Oval never return? Are we witnessing the swan song for an institution that has lasted 150 years? But hang on. Why has Classic Coke endured and so why can’t Test cricket?
When Coca-Cola launched New Coke in 1985, it committed what marketers now study as a near-fatal error: it tampered with something people didn’t merely like, but identified with. Consumers revolted. Letters poured in. Protests followed. And within months, Classic Coke was back — victorious, unchanged, and mythologised. So here’s the obvious question cricket romantics keep asking: If consumers fought for Classic Coke, why doesn’t Test cricket endure in the same way? The answer is uncomfortable but clarifying.
Classic Coke asked for seconds. Test cricket asks for days. Classic Coke fitted effortlessly into daily life. You could drink it standing at a counter, in a car, between meetings. Loving it didn’t require sacrifice. Test cricket does. It asks for five days. Or at the very least, mental availability across five days.
In an era where leisure time is fragmented, calendars are overloaded, and attention is constantly under assault, Test cricket doesn’t just compete with T20s — it competes with life itself. People may adore Test cricket. But adoration does not equal availability.
Test cricket exists in a brutally different ecosystem now. Fans now have T20s that finish in three hours, highlights that condense sessions into seconds, reels that package drama without context and options of other sports, gaming, OTT, and infinite scroll. Test cricket is not being rejected. It is being outpaced. In the economy of time, speed wins far more often than depth.
The medium evolved. The product didn’t. Coke in 2025 is consumed exactly as it was in 1985. Test cricket isn’t. It was designed for radio commentary, newspapers the next morning and conversations that unfolded slowly. Today’s fan lives in live notifications, short-form videos, second screens and constant dopamine loops. Test cricket still offers unmatched complexity and narrative richness. But its delivery system hasn’t fully adapted to how audiences now consume sport. It’s not that Test cricket lacks meaning. It’s that meaning now travels differently.
Fans do not emotionally reject Test cricket. They revere it. They romanticise it. They defend it passionately in debates. But behaviour tells a different story. Fans now follow storylines without watching sessions, dip in and out rather than immerse and consume moments, not matches. Classic Coke was a habit. Test cricket has become a monument.
Relevance isn’t the problem. Accessibility is. Test cricket still delivers the greatest rivalries, the most demanding skill tests and the deepest sporting narratives. What it struggles with perhaps is scheduling rigidity, modern storytelling formats and alignment with contemporary rhythms. Classic Coke returned unchanged because it could seamlessly re-enter daily life.
Test cricket cannot simply “return” in its old form. It must coexist differently…without losing its soul.
So what is the solution? Test cricket demands everything — time, patience, context and emotional investment. This doesn’t make Test cricket obsolete. Rather, it makes it precious. The format may no longer be a mass consumption product any more and it needs to be positoned and marketed differently. But it remains the game’s conscience, its gold standard, its ultimate examination.
Some examples could be 5-minute daily films titled “The session that changed the Test” or “Why this spell broke the match”. What may work is analyst-driven breakdowns, not viral clips — fewer videos, higher intelligence! Make people watch with intent and not boredom by framing sessions. Precious categories thrive on visuals. Execution ideas like “Morning Session Club” (coffee + cricket), “Post-Lunch Hour” explainers or “Final Session Watch-Along” for purists. The language has to sift from “Catch all the action” to “Witness something that won’t repeat”
Modern audiences crave authentic struggle, not constant triumph. Test cricket should not chase Volume CPMs or Spray-and-pray sponsorships; instead it should chase fewer, long-term partners and Brands aligned with Craft, Time, Mastery and Integrity. It is better to have five aligned sponsors than 25 mismatched ones.
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