The former Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene stands against the proposal of conducting four-day Test. The success of the pink-ball Test has brought the chances of other advancements being proposed to the long-form of cricket.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has recently come forth with the idea of conducting four-day Test matches in the future World Test Championship matches for the 2023-2031 time period. The proposal was accepted by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) who were later joined in by the Cricket South Africa (CSA).
In July 2019, England conducted their first four-day Test where they defeated the visiting Ireland by 143 runs. Whereas, South Africa conducted a four-day day/night Test once in 2017 against Zimbabwe that was won by the hosts by an innings and 120 runs.
However, with the increasing popularity of limited-overs and shorter form of cricket, ICC is planning to free the hectic schedule of the Test cricket.
Jayawardene vouches for the Test format to remain as the five-day game:
The international governing body of cricket has already raised their flags in favour of reducing the number of days in the red-ball game. However, so far only the elite group of Test-playing nations have conducted the new proposed version of the game while the smaller nations still follow the five-day schedule.
Nevertheless, ICC and the member boards will discuss the proposal in the upcoming meeting. ICC, although, would likely shorten the red-ball game to four-day format and use the remaining time period in scheduling more of the shorter version of cricket.
However, on Wednesday, Jayawardene clearly stated that he would not want to change the format of the long version of the game. Although things are yet to be discussed on the table with other members, the former veteran batsman made it clear that he is against the proposal of the apex body.
“We will discuss it in the meeting (in March, and I don’t know what will happen after that but my personal opinion is that it should remain five days. I would not want any change,” he told PTI.
Meanwhile, Andrew Strauss, Rahul Dravid, and Shaun Pollock are also in the cricket committee. The Head of the cricket committee, Anil Kumble said that ICC’s proposal would be discussed in the meeting that is scheduled in Dubai from March 27-31.