The International Cricket Council is likely to consider mandatory four-day Test matches in the recently included ICC Test championship from 2023. ICC cricket committee is likely to consider the change in 2020. However, the world’s cricketers stand of opposition can be a hindrance in implementing the four-day Test matches.
Many players believe that the jump from four-day first-class matches to five-day International matches is huge. Subsequently, having four-day Test matches at the highest level might not be a good idea.
ICC wants to cut down the time.
The ICC’s increasing demand for event windows, the rapid growth of domestic T20 leagues, the BCCI’s demands for its own sizable share of bilateral calendar space, and the costs of staging Test series are all factors contributing to this move.
“It is something that we have got to seriously consider,” Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts told SEN Radio this week. “It is something that can’t be driven by emotion, but it needs to be driven by fact. We need to look at what’s the average length of Test matches over the past five-ten years in terms of time and overs.
Consequently, had four-day Test matches would have been played from 2015 to 2023 which is the current cycle, it would have given 335 more days to the governing to host more matches.
Paine is not impressed by the idea.
Meanwhile, the four-day Test matches have 98 overs in a day as compared to 90 overs per day in a five-day Test. Ergo, only 58 overs would be lost in four-day Test matches.
The Australian captain Tim Paine is one of the International skippers who is not convinced by the idea of four-day Test matches.
“We might not have got a result if we’d done that in the Ashes, I think every game went to the fifth day,” he said. “That’s the point of difference with Test cricket, it is five days, it’s harder mentally, it’s harder physically, and it tests players more than the four-day first-class fixtures do. I think that’s what it’s designed to do, so I hope it stays that way.”
ICC is trying to make the game more global and hence they are tinkering with the rules. It would be interesting to note the final decision by the governing body and the big boards will have a larger say in the same.