The ICC has been planning a lot of things for the revival of Test cricket, among which is the proposal to reduce Tests from five-day affairs to four days. But many cricketers, including Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar, have opposed this idea. Sachin feels that taking away day five from spinners would be just like not allowing fast bowlers to bowl on day one.
“Spinners look forward to bowling with the scuffed ball, taking advantage of day five of the roughs created on the wicket. All that is a part of Test cricket. Is it fair to take that advantage away from the spinners,” he told Mumbai Mirror.
“There is T20, it is one-dayers and then there are T10 and 100-ball cricket. The test is the purest form of cricket. It should not be tinkered with,” he added.
Sachin went on to say that the basics of the game cannot be changed just to make it a hit among the younger generation.
“When did you last see a bowler using reverse swing in a one-day game? The skill is out of limited overs formats because now we use two new balls. For the ball to reverse swing, it needs to get soft.”
For Sachin, the solution to revive Tests is the call for sporting surfaces. “The ICC, in my view, should focus on providing quality playing surfaces.
“Let the ball do things – spin, seam, swing, and bounce. It will automatically liven-up the game. It will also throw up more results. Currently, there are far too many dead games.”
In the end, Sachin hopes that spinners like Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh hold discussions with the ICC and don’t support the move. “This is one thing that he cannot be supportive of.”
Earlier, Kohli also said that he will not endorse this format, explaining the cons of it. “I don’t think that’s fair to the purest format of the game. How cricket started initially, five-day Test matches was the highest test you can have at the international level. It shouldn’t be altered.”
