The President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India(BCCI) Mr. Anurag Thakur has disagreed with the thought of making Test cricket four-day affairs as well as with the idea of splitting the teams into two tiers.
"It is four day versus five day, it is two-tier as well.We should analyse the shortcomings [of Test cricket]. Is it the paucity of time? The issue is why aren't you getting enough crowd for a Test match? That is the basic issue,” he told ESPN Cricinfo in an interview.
According to him, if the new format wasn’t going to be better than the one in use now, it may not have any significant impact on the game in totality.
"If you don't have a foolproof format in front of you, where is it going to help the game of cricket? I think we should not even [get into] into that," he added.
One of the major factors behind the need for experimentation in Test cricket is to bring more viewers to venues and speaking on that issue, Mr. Thakur said that one of the reasons why he believed for low spectator response in the longer format was the duration of the game and also added that in the case of India at least, there was a generational gap and one couldn’t force the fan to watch one particular format.
"Ask yourself: football, how much time does it take to finish the game? Hockey, how much time does it take? American football, rugby. Fans, on one hand, have these kind of games which are finished in two hours time at the most; cricket's shortest format, it takes close to three, three and a half hours. So that is one reason.
“Second, there is a generational gap I believe. We must look into the crowd which comes in England, Australia or in India. What is the average age who comes to watch Test cricket. India is a young country. We have a lot of youngsters. Whether they connect with T20, ODI or Test, you can't force the fan.
"It is the fan who has to decide what he wants to see. You can give all the products, he is the best judge whether he has interest in A, B or C. So we are playing all formats. Let's see which is the most watchable product,” he added.
On the issue of playing cricket with the pink ball in India, he said that they will find out what everyone thought of the experiment after the conclusion of the ongoing Duleep Trophy in Greater Noida and based on that, will take a call on whether any of the matches in the upcoming season will be played in the day/night format.
"This is one of the tournaments where we are trying the pink ball.BCCI is not in a hurry to take any decision
“We'll take the feedback after the tournament is completed. Once it is completed, BCCI can take a call in future whether pink ball is viable in Indian conditions or not, whether it will help to make Test cricket more popular.
“We have a long season at home where we are hosting New Zealand, England and Australia [and Bangladesh] for Test matches, playing 13 Test matches at home and we have already finished four [away] with West Indies. So 17 Test matches in a season is a huge, huge period. When globally most countries are not playing enough Test cricket, BCCI is sticking to it, trying to make it as popular as other formats and we'll try our best,” he concluded.
Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download CricRocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more! 🚀☄️
