UNITED KINGDOM – They are the cricket stars of future, fighting their way to the top. Now the pupils from Morley Victoria Primary School in Leeds are one step closer to playing in front of a match day crowd in Headingley. The under-nines at the Victoria Road School have won the first “cluster festival” of the Drax Cup 2008. They could now secure a place in the competition’s final that will be played before the Yorkshire County cricket match on June 26th. The first round of mini-tournament was held at the Morley Cricket Club on Scatcherd Lane and which involved 50 boys and girls playing in mixed teams. Newlands Primary was runner-up.

Morley Victoria the head teacher, Richard Elstub said: “They thoroughly enjoyed it. For many of them, it was the first time they had played on a real cricket field, although they had lots of practice in the school field. It was also the first time that many of these children had played a game against other schools. They’ve got a real thirst for it now; they can’t wait until the next round.” The good part about this competition is that everybody gets a chance to bat, everybody bowls and everybody fields.”

Morley Victoria will now play in a district final of the Drax Cup; and if they win that, they will go through to the area final, bringing them a step closer to the Grand Final next month. The first Drax Cup was held last year and attracted 86 teams, with four teams from North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and East Yorkshire battling it out at Headingley. The competition is organized by The Yorkshire County Cricket Club, in conjunction with The Yorkshire Schools’ Cricket Association and The Yorkshire Cricket Board. Dorothy Thompson, chief executive of Drax, said: “It’s great to see the growing popularity of the Drax Cup.”

With the arrival of Twenty20 cricket, which is a five day game seems to have become an unappealing proposition for cricket boards. A strong hint would be the BCCI shortening their forthcoming home Test series against England from three matches to two, in order to accommodate more limited overs games.

Will this send Test cricket down a slow path to extinction? Would the oldest, the toughest variety of this brilliant sport be forgotten forever? Or is this just a passing phase of struggle?

Like Sachin Tendulkar said on Sunday, the most common grumble he gets from foreigners is that not just Test cricket, even the one day game is too long. They wish to have a game which lasts no more than three hours. True, Twenty20 may help globalize cricket, but does it mean that, for the sake of globalization, we do away with the five day game.