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Nasser Hussain and Rahul Dravid,
former England and India captains, have called for the restoration of
the Champions Trophy and the severe restriction of bilateral
limited-overs series to reinvigorate Test cricket. While Hussain
believed the Champions Trophy, where the top eight teams clash, should
replace the 50-over World Cup, Dravid felt cutting down on bilateral
ODIs and Twenty20s would help accommodate more Tests.
Hussain and Dravid were speaking during a panel discussion on "The
future of Test cricket in the modern age" at the ESPNcricinfo for
Cricket event held at The Oval in London on Monday, part of a series of
events to celebrate the website's 20th anniversary.
"A lot of five-match or seven-match one-day series don't seem to have a
context about them," Dravid said. "The Champions Trophy had a context.
Some of these meaningless bilateral one-day games, do they serve the
purpose?"
Although Dravid wanted the World Cup to co-exist with the Champions
Trophy and the scheduled World Test Championship starting 2017, he felt
T20s should be largely restricted to franchise level. "I would play
one-day cricket only as preparation for the 50-over World Cup and the
Champions Trophy so you can remove a lot of one-day cricket teams are
playing nowadays and fit in Test matches that are required," Dravid
said. "Have a Test Championship that culminates into something once
every two years. The World Twenty20 should be every two years. T20
cricket should be franchise cricket except for the major competitions."
If context was important for Dravid, contest was key for Hussain.
Although he was skeptical whether countries like India might allow a
clampdown on ODIs and T20s, Hussain agreed with Mark Nicholas,
the former Hampshire captain and the event moderator, that the lack of a
contest needed to be addressed. "Restore the Champions Trophy and call
it the World Cup," Hussain said.
But what to do with Associates such as Ireland and Netherlands who have
been part of recent World Cups and added to the romance of the game with
their own stories, Nicholas wondered. Hussain said only the best eight
had the right to contest a World Cup. "You got to qualify to sit at
that table. You got to be good enough and I'm not sure some sides are,"
Hussain said. "There might be one and they should get there through a
play-off. Whoever is ranked eighth at a certain point should have a
play-off with Ireland (or the Associate nation that comes through the
World Cup Qualifiers) in a three-match ODI series or whatever and they
will qualify if they are good."
| "I would play one-day cricket only as preparation for the 50-over World Cup and the Champions Trophy so you can remove a lot of one-day cricket teams are playing nowadays and fit in Test matches that are required. Have a Test Championship that culminates into something once every two years. The World Twenty20 should be every two years. T20 cricket should be franchise cricket except for the major competitions." Rahul Dravid | |||
The panel, which also had former England batsman Ed Smith
and Richard Verow, commercial director at Sky Sports, agreed that
administrators had got it wrong by allowing two-Test series. Two
matches, Hussain argued, killed a contest rather than building one. "As
we have seen throughout this Test series [The Ashes] and it happened a
little bit with the England-New Zealand series, there is nothing worse
than a two-match series. Because if a contest does develop between
players like Broad v Clarke now, if you get that for just two Test
matches, Clarke can just go away and smash someone else. So as things
develop and you get to the fifth Test and are waking up in the morning,
you know that he has gone against Stuart Broad first up and you know
what is going to happen. So you need the contest."
Hussain was the only cricketer on the panel who felt that rumours of
Test cricket dying due to the rise of T20 were "exaggerated". However,
he did say there was no denying the lure of lucrative leagues like the
IPL, which had the power to seduce both veterans as well as youngsters.
"If someone is offering me a couple of million to go and work for six
weeks than stand around all year and work for a tenth of that, you are
going to be very, very tempted as a young or old player," Hussain said.
"So you are diluting both ends. At the end of your career if you are
Kevin Pietersen and you are looking and you find a good deal, the IPL is
there, as it was for the Warnes, Gilchrists and Haydens. So you are
losing the top bit of the cake. At the bottom, youngsters are coming in
(and thinking), 'shall I work my butt off, play for Essex down at
Chelmsford on a nibbling one in April-May or should I go and play six
weeks? Not everyone gets a million dollars in T20 but good cash will do
really well so that someone might spot me.' So you are losing that
(youth) as well."
Hussain felt it was crucial to succeed in the longer form of the game
and playing the IPL could not teach you to perform in first-class
cricket. He pointed to the pair of Owais Shah and Eoin Morgan, players
popular in the IPL but who could not perform consistently on the county
circuit. "Cricket is about rhythm of the game," Hussain said. "And a lot
of these guys that go on the T20 treadmill lose the rhythm of the game
and not many come back better first-class cricketers. You look at Shah,
you look at Morgan, they don't suddenly come back and start smashing
hundreds and double-hundreds for Essex, Middlesex because you lose the
rhythm of batting. Test match cricket is what it is all about - the main
course you look after."
| "Should they (the ICC) be looking at new markets, as in America and China, and trying to spend all their cash there, and having these ICC tournaments and trying to sell it to these people who don't really know the game or want to know the game? Or should they be looking at Bangladesh and Zimbabwe who are desperate to play the game, do well and get better and sit down, have a chat and ask them what can they do to help?" Nasser Hussain | |||
The point of governance also came up for discussion and all felt the ICC
needed to be empowered while being given more autonomy and liberty to
perform its duties. "They (the ICC) worry far too much about small
stuff," Hussain said. "They worry about markings on pads. 'Put tape on
that. You have got too many Gray Nichols stickers on your pads.' People
are running on and off the field willy-nilly and you can let them do
that. Since 1978 we haven't had 15 overs an hour around the world. We
are not doing anything about that. Just be strong with players."
Dravid said powerful member boards needed to "sacrifice" control to give
the ICC freedom. "In an ideal scenario we want them to be stronger,"
Dravid said. "The ICC is the creation of the boards. The boards have to
actually give it that power, that responsibility to be able to run the
game. Some of the stronger and more powerful nations have to make a few
sacrifices in terms of their power and control and hand over little bit
of power to the ICC for it to be able to effectively run and monitor the
game."
Hussain said the clear chasm between the top-tier and lower-tier nations
was the "crux" of the whole debate surrounding Test cricket. "It is not
about T20," Hussain said. "The gap is widening. There is no easy
solution. But it is also unfair on some of these sides. I had an
argument with the great Michael Holding about West Indies not playing
(well) against the moving ball in England. He said which side does play
the moving ball that well in April-May in England. Our boys will hate me
for saying this, but send them to India or Sri Lanka for a five-Test
series and that won't be easy. That is the issue. (Weaker countries) are
at the mercy of sides like England and Australia. They don't have the
cash so they are not sending their Under-19s on tours."
Smith said it was the duty of the richer countries to co-operate and
help the weaker members. "It is crucial to Test cricket. If the games
are good, if the product is good, we are a way towards solving the
problem."
Hussain posed a question to the ICC. "Should they be looking at new
markets, as in America and China, and trying to spend all their cash
there, and having these ICC tournaments and trying to sell it to these
people who don't really know the game or want to know the game? Or
should they be looking at Bangladesh and Zimbabwe who are desperate to
play the game, do well and get better and sit down, have a chat and ask
them what can they do to help?"
Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
Feeds: Nagraj Gollapudi
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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