Steve Waugh and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) call for Day/Night Tests
Amid the growing popularity of the crash bang format of T20 cricket, the cricketing fraternity is mulling over the endangered future of five day tests’ and the 50-over one-day internationals. These varieties were introduced some 30 years ago and only last month, the 3000th ODI was staged between traditional rivals Australia and England at Lords.
Marylebone Cricket Club joined in the debate over the future of the two versions of cricket. The MCC’s own committee thinks that the governing body of cricket, the International Cricket Council, needs to take immediate action to safeguard the two formats, especially test cricket where innovations like day/night cricket have become increasingly important.
The committee held a two-day moot at Lords and mulled over the possible changes in the longest format of the game through a galaxy of former international stars. Most of them believe that a Test Championship is needed to enhance interest in the five-day game, and added that day-night test matches ought to be introduced at the earliest.
Leading the chorus of players keen on day/night cricket was former Australian Captain Steve Waugh who claimed that the future was pink. “I think it would be great”, he said. “There's always resistance to change because it takes people out of their comfort zone, but I think back to World Series Cricket when I was a kid. It ignited the spark amongst the spectators and as players, it was exciting. Like Twenty20 cricket, it would be something new and challenging, and as a player I'd really embrace that”.
On the other hand, the usually conservative ICC was cautious about the move and wants to conduct more research before the introduction of pink balls and day-night test cricket for international competitions. Outgoing President David Morgan thinks that day/night tests are inevitable and could be on their way sooner than expected as two of the leading cricket boards in the world – Cricket http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 and the Board of Control for Cricket in India - were keen on the experiment.
Meanwhile, day/night test cricket was not the only thing on the agenda in the meeting. The committee also felt that it was important to prepare quality test match pitches that would offer a fair balance between bat and ball to maintain interest levels for the fans and cricketers alike.
The committee felt that the usually benign surfaces in test cricket were lopsided in favour of the batsmen and the case was similar in places like the West Indies and India which was a poor advertisement for the game.
The members of the committee also mulled over the results of some surveys conducted by the MCC, which indicated that there was a sharp decline in interest levels for test cricket in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 which has the largest fan base in the game.
Some of the members felt that while test cricket was of utmost importance, the commercial interest generated by theT20 format could not be ignored and the real challenge for the ICC was to forge the right balance between the two formats.
Another factor causing a decline in interest in test cricket was the inclination of some of the leading players to quit the taxing format and concentrate only on the financially lucrative T20 format, which brings instant results besides being a great source of income for international cricketers.
“It's important that senior players pass on to the junior players just how important it is to play Test cricket”, said Waugh. “We've seen what's happened in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 cricket, with Chris Gayle stating he prefers Twenty20 cricket. That's had an impact on his side”, concluded the man who took immense pride in wearing the baggy green Australian cap in test cricket.
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