England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are keen to have four-day test matches from 2020 and will be bringing up the proposal in ICC annual meeting in Auckland next month, according to reports.
Test cricket had seen a steep decrease in audience over the past decade with the advent of T20 cricket. However, the member boards are coming up with new ideas to keep the longest format alive.
So came the day-night test games and shortening the test games seems to be the next big step in helping test cricket survive in the coming years. According to Telegraph Sports, ECB are keen to propose the idea next month in ICC meeting and are anxious to implement it after the Ashes series in 2019.
ECB chairman, Colin Graves and chief executive back in 2016 said:
“Every Test match would start on a Thursday, with Thursday and Friday being corporate days and then Saturday and Sunday the family days.
“From a cost point of view you’d lose that fifth day, which would save a lot of money from the ground’s point of view and the broadcasters… I would look at that,” he added.
The idea is garnering a lot of interest from across all the member nations as apart from Australia, India and England, there is minimal crowd turning out for test games. A four-day game would mean a saving of up to 20% cost on every game.
On the other hand, Cricket South Africa (CSA) are set to request ICC for test status approval for their four-day game against Zimbabwe in December. The African nations clash in Port Elizabeth on Boxing day in a day-night game. There is an excellent chance that the match might get test status with most of the boards keen to watch out for the new experiment.