Shane Watson Wants Kids To Love Test Cricket 1

While T20 cricket has been an absolute crowd puller for many past years, the love for Test cricket has fallen down in Australia, which is can be seen in iconic Boxing day Test matches when there were few empty seats in stands, which is a big worry in Australian cricket.

The opposite has been the case with T20 league in Australia as Big Bash, the premier T20 tournament played in the country, has reached another level.

Whether you talk about attendance at the stadium during the game or television ratings, the popularity of Big Bash League has notched up few levels higher which has now forced stars like Shane Watson to show concern for Test cricket as he is worried about this transition and has said that converting the love for T20 to the love for Test cricket is the ultimate challenge in today world full of T20 leagues,

“The biggest challenge is to really be able to transit that love of the game of cricket into kids still wanting to play Test cricket,”

Watson said.

“It is the ultimate challenge, that’s where you want to challenge yourself against the best players in the world in Test cricket, but also all the cricketers that have gone before you because that’s really the best guide to where you’re at as a cricketer throughout your career.

“It’s an incredible product that Cricket Australia have put together with the Big Bash. To be able to see so many young families come along and stay there until the last ball’s bowled and enjoy every moment of it, it’s a great way to be able to engage the young cricketers.

“When they come through to being late teens, early 20s, that will be the time when we really see how much of a pull T20 cricket has had and whether it’s really changed the direction of what the priorities are for younger cricketers who are coming into domestic and first-class cricket,”

Watson added.

Shane Watson retired from international cricket after Australia’s unsuccessful run in the T20 World Cup 2016 played in India. He was recently bestowed with the T20 player of the year award by Cricket Australia.

In an international career spanning 14 years, Watson played a total of 59 Tests, 190 ODIs and 58 T20Is for Australia and was a part of the Australian team that won 2007 World Cup held in West Indies.