Test cricket doesn't need 'Welly' to keep us glued to the telly - Chris Waters

Who knew?

It certainly didn’t need New Zealand’s one-run win against England in Wellington to prove it.

In the aftermath of that gripping denouement at the Basin Reserve, one which did little for the equilibrium of anyone watching/listening in the UK around 3am, there was understandable talk of the game being a great advert for Test cricket, of how entertainment is the most important thing and the result less so in this case, and how such matches might breathe life into the old format yet.

All so true, and yet so deeply depressing when you really think about it, for Test cricket stands on its own two feet - it shouldn’t need dramatic finishes to survive.

Make no mistake, the future of Test cricket is under threat as never before.

The creeping advent of T20, of T10, of The Hundred (vomits into nearest bowl) is squeezing the five-day format as surely as digital is squeezing the life out of print in the newspaper world.

Outside of England, Australia and India, Test cricket has lost much of its sparkle and much of its support, with series often reduced to two-match affairs, as just witnessed in New Zealand.

White-ball is where the money is and, surprise, surprise, money talks the loudest.

Nowadays, a player can earn seven figures for a few weeks in the Indian Premier League, cash having corrupted cricket as it has other sports.

It is simultaneously thrilling and infuriating, therefore, when you get a close finish like Wellington - thrilling for obvious reasons, infuriating because it naturally brings talk of helping to keep Test cricket going.

That conversation should be superfluous for the very reason that Test cricket can be exciting even when it is nowhere near as exciting, which it usually isn’t; this was only the fourth time in Test history, after all, that a side had won after following-on, and only the second one-run margin of victory/defeat.

The problem with ‘Bazball’ - if that is not counterintuitive - is that there is a danger of falling into a trap of thinking that Test cricket needs such drama to remain exciting/relevant.

Not among true aficionados, obviously, but among those who such high-octane cricket seeks to attract, a brand of cricket which England might be capable of playing but not many - if any - other teams could.

We must never forget, or lose sight of the fact, that Test cricket can be wonderfully exciting even when the scoring rate is not above five runs per over, even if one side isn’t declaring its first innings closed after 50-odd overs, and so on.

The good old hard-fought draw, the backs-to-the-wall rearguard that drains the life out of the bowling team on the fifth and final day, can be just as compelling as a first-day score of 500-plus, all in a day’s work for the ‘Bazball’ brigade.

Test cricket is a game of nuance, of light and shade, of chess-like periods of consolidation and then thrilling attacks to knock down the king.

There can be tremendous beauty in dogged, gritty survival as well as in swashbuckling heroics and/or tight finishes. That is why Test cricket has been the wonderful game it has since 1877.

It is hard to watch a finish like Wellington, a match like Wellington, and to think that Test cricket faces a survival fight at all.

What is it with people? Are they not entertained? Can they not see the beauty in the various undulations of the five-day game?

Each to their own, clearly, but there is nothing to compare with a great five-day Test.

Yes, white-ball cricket throws up some wonderful matches, some wonderful finishes, some wonderful cricket, but once you’ve seen one bloke hit six sixes in an over in the Istanbul Super League, you’ve seen them all do it.

How can anyone be excited by - let alone feel any sort of attachment to - the increasing myriad of franchise competitions?

A (proud) confession: I have never sat through a game of IPL on television; I literally don’t watch a ball of it, couldn’t care less.

I haven’t clicked on one T20 scorecard all winter, be it from the new tournaments in South Africa or Dubai, or anywhere else.

When I read the other day that Isle of Man had been bowled out for 10 by Spain, the lowest score in men’s T20 history, I simply shrugged my shoulders and carried on boiling the kettle.

Isle of Man versus Spain? No thanks. Nothing would induce me to click on that scorecard, or seek out the highlights, apart from a gun to the head.

No, Test cricket is where it’s at, as Wellington showed but did not need to do so.

The IPL, the Pakistan Super League, the Mozambique Thrash, the Costa Rica Smash, the Botswana Bash-a-thon, or whatever these damn things are called, you can keep ‘em – and you can stick ‘em.