In a recent turn of events, it is now being reported that that the International Cricket Committee (ICC) is in fact set to discuss the four-day Test proposal in March despite criticism from some of the players including some of the current and former greats like Ricky Ponting, Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar.
Former Indian captain Anil Kumble, who is the head of ICC’s cricket committee, confirmed that the proposal of the four-day Tests will be discussed in the next round of the ICC meetings which will be held in Dubai from 27-31 March.
“Since I am part of the committee, I can’t tell what I am thinking about it (proposal) at the moment. We will discuss it in the meeting and let you know,” Kumble told PTI.
Notably, former International players like Andrew Strauss, Rahul Dravid, Mahela Jayawardene and Shaun Pollock are also on the cricket committee.
The four-day Test idea is being proposed not for the current ICC World Test Championship cycle but from the next cycle of the Test Championship but has not gone too well with some of the greats of the game.
Although some of the cricketing boards like England Cricket Board and Cricket Australia seem to be in favour of the idea, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly admitted that “it is too early” to discuss the idea.
Ahead of the first match of the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka, Indian skipper made his thoughts very clear on the four-day Test matches.
“According to me, it should not be altered. As I said, the day-night is another step towards commercialising Test cricket and you know, creating excitement around it, but it can’t be tinkered with too much,” Virat had said as quoted by PTI.
“Then you are purely only talking about getting numbers, entertainment and you know. I think the intent will not be right then because then you will speak of three-day Tests. I mean where do you end. Then you will speak of Test cricket disappearing. So I don’t endorse that at all,” he added.
However, there are former players like Shane Warne, Mark Taylor and Michael Vaughan who are in favour of the idea.
As far as ICC is concerned, they want to conduct four-day Test matches to free up some space in the crowded international cricketing Test calendar and maybe organise more contests in the commercially successful shortest format of the game.
For the unversed, the four-day Test matches have already been played before. England-Ireland played a four-day Test in 2019 while South Africa-Zimbabwe were also involved in a four-day Test match in 2017.
(With inputs from PTI)