I am not a fan of four-day Test- Gayle
Image : Cricfrenzy
|| CF Correspondent ||
West Indian opener Chris Gayle said that he is not a fan of four-day Test match as he believe the real challenge lies in playing five-day Test match.
‘’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 am not a big fan of that. 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 said.
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.
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[ pof 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 India captain Virat Kohli said he was totally against the plan.
