Test cricket is generally considered as the game of highest standard because it tests the team’s endurance and ability in the longest match duration of five days. The red-ball cricket is played between national representative nations that have been granted Test status by the global cricket body; International Cricket Council (ICC).
To preserve the longest format, the ICC has been experimenting with various methods to keep the interest alive among avid fans.
Well, the introduction of day and night (pink-ball) affair added a new colour to the canvass and also the advent of the ICC World Test Championship made this format a bit more competitive than ever before.
Four-day Test has a future or not?
Despite bringing all these proposals into effect, a certain section of supporters still feels the Test cricket boring considering the number of days with which the game is being played.
The cricket fraternity has also seen Test matches coming to a close inside four days and thus sparked the idea of four-day Tests.
The ICC also put forth the idea of making four-day Tests compulsory from 2023 but the problem has been receiving contrasting opinions from the stakeholders of the game.
Test cricket hasn’t lost its sheen: Anil Kumble
While some believe Test cricket has lost its sheen former India coach Anil Kumble voiced his opinion on four-day Tests.
The former India cricketer and chairman of the ICC’s Cricket Committee, Kumble disagreed with those saying Test cricket was dead owing to lack of interest from the fans.
While fans are not turning up in numbers to watch the game in stadiums, the 49-year-old former India cricketer added that cricket lovers are still following the gentleman’s game through digital platforms.
The former India coach went on to add saying that if the popularity of Test cricket was a major cause of concern then necessary steps should be taken in a bid to attract the audience to the stadium.
“It is just that you want more people to come and watch Test cricket from the stadium. That isn’t happening. But people who’re sitting in this room are following what is happening in New Zealand – either through phones or messages coming through notifications. When people talk about Test cricket is dying, I don’t think so.”
“So, if we’re following Test cricket why are we talking about it dying. Yes, people going to stadiums, spending five days, watching Test cricket – that may have come down. That experience needs to get better. The sense of what I think about it is the players have given that. I mean, they don’t want a four-day Test. Five-day Test is what it is. And a Test it is because it is five days. If it was four days, it wouldn’t be a Test. I am very clear about that,” Anil Kumble was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
The third-highest wicket-taker of all time in Test cricket also echoed that the four-day Test was discussed by the committee some years ago but there was no further development on making it mandatory.
“It was discussed a couple of years ago, but I don’t think there’s any progress made on taking a decision of a mandatory four-day Test. I don’t think it has ever been done. There was an experiment done with South Africa and Zimbabwe, where they played a four-day Test match. England played Ireland. I mean when you play Afghanistan, Ireland, Zimbabwe, maybe the boards have the wherewithal to go ahead and play a four-day Test.
But the [ICC Cricket] Committee and even within the ICC, I don’t think there’s any, at least in the immediate, thinking of having a four-day Test competition, which is mandatory. I don’t think there’s anything of that (nature), but I am really glad that the players believe that it is a five-day competition that they want,” Anil Kumble added.