#worldtestday

As most are surely aware, yesterday was, unofficially, World Test Day. For the first time in the 134 year history of the format, there were four Test matches happening simultaneously.

Four matches, eight nations, two continents, 88 athletes. Brilliant stuff.

Of course, it did not last long. The West Indies ended their clobbering of Bangladesh just 45 minutes or so after the start of Sri Lanka and New Zealand, but still, it was fun while it last.

I was able to watch three of the matches live: India v England, Australia v South Africa, and the aforementioned Bangladesh v West Indies. And all three streams were legal, too, that’s the best part. It really is a golden age for cricket viewing here in the states, and last night drove that point home for good.

On the pitch we saw brilliant centuries from Ross Taylor, Alastair Cook, and Kevin Pieteresen. We saw a five-fer from Monty Panesar of all people, and a six-fer from Tino Best. We saw batting collapses galore: South Africa, Bangladesh, and India.

We saw a West Indian renaissance, a newly confident England, a crumbling South Africa, a resurgent Australia.

We saw an old batsman, the hero to a billion people, continue his slow, sad descent into the night.

We saw Alastair Cook cement his place as England captain.

We saw Kevin Pietersen show us all why he is still the most exciting batsman in world cricket.

And for the first time in a long time, we saw a New Zealand Test side that looked to be at least mildly interested in winning something.

Finally, and most importantly, we saw evidence that this format is long from dead – and it honestly is not even sick, in my opinion.

Mumbai, Adelaide, Khulna, Colombo. The Wankhede Stadium and the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium. The P Sara Oval and the Adelaide Oval. A brilliant evening in white for dorks like me the world over to enjoy. Looking forward to doing it all again tonight, albeit with only three Tests happening simultaneously.