NO one seriously believes that Test cricket is under threat from Twenty20. We heard it all before when limited-overs cricket was born in the 60s and 70s. If anything the five-day game should be enhanced by the 20-over format just as it was by the 50-over game.

But for all that, this is a huge summer for the global credibility of Test match cricket. The England football team's absence from the European Championship leaves a gaping mid-summer hole when cricket will come under intense scrutiny.

A dreary start to the summer against New Zealand could start a media bandwagon of negativity, which will only be arrested by an exciting victory in the second Test series of the summer against a strong South African side.

In the predictable but depressing absence of Andrew Flintoff, English cricket is crying out for another hero to capture the public's imagination and give us some tangible hope ahead of another massive Ashes series in 2009.

Sky TV used to have a deal with Flintoff to do some promotional work for them when they publicised their live cricket broadcasts each summer. Obviously Flintoff's injury-scarred recent past has meant he is no longer the face of English cricket.

But who is? The sudden break-up of the 2005 Ashes-winning side has left a relatively anonymous group in its wake. None of the senior players, like Michael Vaughan, Andrew Strauss, Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard, are automatic selections any more. Even Vaughan, who obviously the first name on the team sheet as captain, is getting long in the tooth and needs big runs to secure his future.

Kevin Pietersen is the Ferrari in a batting line-up of Ford Mondeos but he remains an enigmatic figure. He's famous, fit, totally professional and great to watch but somehow has not been taken to the public's hearts and may never be.

His recent comments about his desire to cash on in the riches of the Indian Premier League and then about the possibility of "winning the lottery" with Sir Allen Stanford's winner-take-all £10m matches in the Caribbean were brutally honest but do nothing for his standing among England's die-hard supporters.

Ryan Sidebottom is flavour of the month after his terrific winter in New Zealand and his tireless, but largely unsuccessful, efforts in Sri Lanka before Christmas. He's a Wisden Cricketer of the Year and England's player of the year but in terms of popular support, he seems to be one for the blokey cricket fan rather than a Freddie-type figure who can transcend his sport.

Maybe one of the three pin-up boys will emerge as Public Hero No.1 by the end of the summer. Alastair Cook, Stuart Broad and James Anderson recently posed nude, but for a strategically-placed cricket bat, for Cosmopolitan magazine. The pictures created plenty of interest on the Cosmo website, with lots of women suddenly finding a previously undiscovered interest in cricket.

Of those three, Broad would seem to have the most potential to become a big star: looks, fast bowling and very useful batting. It is asking a lot of him to sustain his early promise through all seven Tests and a raft of one-dayers and Twenty20 this summer. He will surely need a rest at some point or more likely pick up an injury. But the potential is there and all the while the Freddie is crocked so is the opportunity to become a national cricketing hero.

But this summer is about more than finding a new English star. It is about Test cricket showcasing itself as the ultimate form of the game, showing that it's enthralling, exciting and intriguing. It's not crash-bang-wallop like Twenty20, but at its best it does offer unparalleled sporting theatre. And English cricket could do with a belting couple of series just to remind us all of that.



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