I started following cricket as a six-year-old in the mid-1970s and the game has certainly changed constantly since then, although in my opinion Test cricket is still the best form of the game.
One of the many changes in Test cricket, which could be described as a by-product of one-dayers and Twenty20, is the role of the opening batsmen.
Both more often than not tend to be attacking players able to dominate a game from the start like arguably the greatest opening pair of all time - West Indians Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes.
Australian Matthew Hayden was the same as is the most attacking and exciting opener of them all, Virender Sehwag, whose idea of taking the shine off the ball is not to defend and block like the past, but hit or clear the fence.
That style of batting is obviously great to watch, but I've always been a great believer you need an attacking opener and one to offer support by providing the sheet anchor.
Keith Stackpole and Bill Lawry were a good opening pair for Australia in the late 1960s and early 70s, with 'Stacky' attacking from the first ball and 'The Phantom' gaining a reputation of being a corpse with pads, but the association worked.
Geoff Boycott, the star English opener, was always criticised for being boring in taking all day to make 50, but he had that pure Test match technique that made him hard to get out.
Another Englishman, Chris Tavare, would prefer to block than score runs.
But he had a job to do and was very effective along with John Edrich, a fine English player who played with Boycott throughout the 60s and 70s and had a reputation of being the best leaver of the ball.
Test teams couldn't afford to have two players opening who were both defensively orientated, however one of each is perfect.
It's early days, but maybe Australia has found that pair in David Warner and Ed Cowan.
They opened for the first time on Boxing Day at the MCG against India and Cowan, who replaced the technically-flawed Phil Hughes, did a Edrich and left many balls just outside off stump going through long periods without scoring.
He spent 36 minutes on 2, while Warner hit boundaries and a six before being dismissed for 37.
After Shaun Marsh went for a duck, Ponting joined Cowan and the former New South Welshman, now Tasmanian, continued to absorb pressure and had to wait 46 minutes to get off 7.
He was 14 not out at lunch after two hours and 24 overs, an excellent example of taking the shine off the new ball.
Cowan has a solid technique perfectly suited to Test cricket and although he was more attacking after lunch, he still left many balls and punished the bad ones to pick up a half-century on debut.
Despite taking more than three hours to pass fifty, it was wonderful to watch and thoroughly deserved.
Tags: sport, cricket, melbourne-3000, vic First posted December 26, 2011 16:29:10
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