ZCZC
BSP-21
CRICKET-GAYLE-FOUR-DAY-TEST
Gayle not a fan of four-day Test
DHAKA, Jan 9, 2020 (BSS)- West Indies superstar Chris Gayle has joined the
other fame cricketers to show his concern over the four-day Test cricket,
saying that it would destroy the beauty of the longer version format.
The International Cricket Council is set to discuss the idea of trimming
the current five-day Tests by a day to ease a crammed international calendar
and reduce player workload, which was met with severe criticism by the
current and former players.
“I am not a fan of that. I played 100 Tests, I mean a few finished in
three days, a few in four but five days Test cricket is the ultimate and to
have a four-day Test…I’m not a big fan of that,” Gayle said.
“It has set the trend and it’s been there for ages so why go and mess with
that. If they give other players a chance to experience that because it can
be a life changing experience to play five-day cricket. It is a mental state
so that you can cope in life as well,” he added.
Four-day matches were given the green light by the ICC in 2017 when South
Africa hosted Zimbabwe, and England have since played one against Ireland.
With an increasing number of Test matches ending prematurely, the
administrators are keen to free up more space in the schedules for lucrative
shorter-form matches.
England have said they will support the idea [four-day Test match] after
2023, Australia are to give serious consideration to the plan, while South
Africa have advocated for four-day games to be played in the future.
However, England director of cricket Ashley Giles said five-day Tests were
“precious” to him and the players after England’s 189-run victory over South
Africa in Cape Town on Tuesday, a dramatic clash that went into the last hour
of the fifth day.
“If we played four-day cricket, I fear we would miss out on a lot matches
like yesterday,” Giles told the BBC. “I know a lot of Tests now don’t go to
the fifth day – but you know it is precious to me, and I know it is to the
players.
“There’s a decision far from made yet, but it’s a responsibility as the
guardians for the game in this country to look after everything that would
take the game forward, and also look after the workloads of our players.”
The powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has yet to offer
an opinion, but Indian captain Virat Kohli said he was totally against the
plan.
BSS/SMP/SSS/1923 hrs