Last Monday (June 8), the newly appointed Sri Lanka cricket captain Kumar Sangakkara’s innings against Australia proved he was a man for all seasons. He struck a match-winning unbeaten 55 in 42 balls with four fours and two sixes.

The way he batted for Sri Lanka’s first series win in Tests against South Africa in August, 2004 — a sedate 232, while consuming 529 minutes in the middle of the Singhalese Sports Club grounds — and Sangakkara’s 10 elegant centuries which he made in 246 One-day Internationals (50-over) so far, are indicative of the great ability a cricketer has for adaptation to various forms of cricket.

In the thick of the World Cup of Twenty-20 cricket now on in England, the polarization of the cricket fan base, probably all over the cricket world, has apparently acquired features of the very film fan base of the Indian Subcontinent. Test cricket is like an art film where the viewers or the admirers are expected to have a certain (educated) background and refined mentality. The latest Twenty-20 version is at the other end; like the commercially oriented, extremely shallow Bollywood movies which are dumped ruthlessly by most of the serious critics.

The way Sangakkara played his innings on Monday with an array of cross-batted shots, converted strokes with a number of hits made by opening his wicket and taking ultimate risks dared all his admirers who always loved the lanky left-hander’s pure elegance, flawless drives, cuts and well-measured pull shots seen often in Tests and ODIs. But Sanga has to adapt or quit. No other option.

An argument is being talked of in circles that Test cricket is sacred and must remain so.

Others on the other hand argue that the universe is in a state of flux and cricket too has changed over time and therefore changes in the game are to be taken for granted.

Seeing the large amount of Twenty-20 cricket played now, due to its ever-growing popularity, it is hard to believe that these players will play Test cricket in the same way.

The day the Test matches are going to be over in a quicker time period (within three, four days) and batsmen seeking to play flashy and unorthodox shots leaving the bowlers to find new ways to scalping the batters is almost at our doorstep.

Most people accept that new day with open arms. Lalith Modi recently said, after this season’s IPL, a whole new spectator base had been created in South Africa. It maybe that most of them hate Test cricket.

It is difficult to think, at this tricky phase of the development of the game, that the cricket controlling bodies of the Test playing countries are ready to make two different approaches towards Test and Twenty-20/ODIs. They are not likely to groom and field two different sides for these two forms of cricket. Such a system, for its effective establishment, has to emerge from the very junior or school level.

Though there is some talk now, it is something unlikely to happen in near future. So, the same Sanga has to play Twenty-20 today and switch to five days of Test cricket next month.

It is likely that cricket too, like cinema, will attain a new face after the advent of the ‘Hit and Giggle’ Twenty-20.

As both Tests as well as the shortened form/s of the game are to be done away with, mainly due to the impact created by active critics in the region, a new mixture is likely to be the future of cricket. That elegant left-hander Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara’s cameo on Monday maybe a forerunner of that future game.