Test Champions? So What?

India winning the World Cup in 1983 sparked off huge nation-wide celebrations and ushered in the ODI era. A generation later when India won the inaugural Twenty20 World Championships a similar if somewhat staged euphoria engulfed the land, and ushered in the age of IPL. Will India's ascendency to the status of World Champions of Test cricket kick off a similar boom in Test cricket?

I somehow very much doubt it.

However make no mistake, even if India lose their official Title, earning it is quite an achievement.  It was earned by blood, sweat and tears over  nearly a decade of passionate cricket, first under the pioneering Sourav Ganguly and now under the dashing Mahendra Singh Dhoni which raised the level of India’s Test cricket to unprecedented heights.  Dada began the trend of the team winning Tests in all conditions against all opponents at home and overseas and Mahi has consolidated that, by now winning not just Tests, but series consistently at home and overseas. 

But be that as it may be, for the casual cricket fan, who probably out number the die-hard 5 to 1 if not more, the lack of a defined tournament, with a trophy to be won, and later defended, the achievement of becoming World Test Champions cannot be understood in visceral terms like the 1983 World Cup win or even the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup victory.

Hence such fans will ask "World Test Champions, So What?"