T20 break gives longer formats time in spotlight

Finally, in the early hours of Tuesday in Ahmedabad, the 2023 Indian Premier League ended after a marathon 74 matches.

Chennai Super Kings triumphed dramatically over Gujarat Titans, last year’s winners, off the last ball, to claim their fifth IPL success.

Attention will now turn away from the Twenty20 format, which threatens to devour professional cricket, to the longer forms, both of which have existentialist concerns.

England began a sequence of six Test matches on June 1. The first of these, against Ireland at Lord’s, represents only the seventh Test played by Ireland since becoming an International Cricket Council full member in 2018. It is a prelude to a five-match Ashes series against Australia. While the match against Ireland will not be sold out, those against Australia will be, for sure.

In between England’s match against Ireland and the start of the Ashes, India and Australia will contest the World Test Championship at The Oval, in London. The two teams finished in the top two places out of nine full members who participated in the 2021 to 2023 cycle.

Each team was scheduled to play six series, three at home and three away. This meant that each team did not play each other equally, playing six of the other eight members. A series consists of between two and five matches, all scheduled to be played over five days.

The unevenness of the tournament led to teams playing a different number of matches. England played the most, 22, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh the least, with 12 each.

Final places were determined by ranking teams according to the percentage of points obtained out of the total number of points contested. Twelve points were awarded for a win, six for a tie, and four for a draw, with points deducted