International Cricket Council (ICC) is planning to introduce the four-day Test match from the third edition of the World Test Championship (from 2023). It has brought debate across the cricket world. With Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir against the idea, Shoaib Akhtar has also disagreed to ICC’s idea.
Shoaib Akhtar has faith in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that they will never stand with the ICC’s new idea. More than, he has belief on Sourav Ganguly, who is the BCCI president, will never take any step to damage the purest form of cricket.
“ICC cannot implement this rule without the permission of BCCI. BCCI along with all the smart cricketers are standing against this idea, especially spinners from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh who dominate and thrive in a series will not let this happen,” Akhtar said.
“Sourav Ganguly is a smart intelligent person. He will never want to see Test cricket getting damaged. He would want it to survive and see India excel in the format,” he said.
Shoaib Akhtar Agree With Sachin Tendulkar
In Test cricket, the spinners get more help on the fifth day, so Sachin Tendulkar believes that it is unfair to take out that advantage from them. In the same vein, Shoaib Akhtar has said that spinners will be more affected by this ICC’s decision.
“Sachin is spot on in his criticism. What will the spinners do? Danesh Kaneria, Mushtaq Ahmed, Ravichandran Aswin, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble have taken 400-500 wickets. What will happen to them?” Akhtar questioned.
Earlier, Virat Kohli said in a clear word that he doesn’t endorse any such changes in the Test cricket. Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir also supported the skipper and said four-day Test match is a ridiculous idea and should be dropped. The Australian spinner Nathon Lyon said that it would bring more draw matches.