Former Sri Lankan pacer Chaminda Vaas on Saturday urged the authorities to work towards keeping the Test and 50-over formats alive amid the growing preference for T20s and the onslaught of franchise-based leagues.
The International Cricket Council CEO Sanjog Gupta had recently remarked that the era of “randomly scheduled bilateral series has to come to an end”, largely for context-driven competitions. But the statement has raised concerns from some parts about the future of one-day cricket.
Because it is where your skill will be really tested,” he said, all the boards should have a plan to keep Test cricket alive and give a lot of youngsters the exposure to that format.
But all the boards should realise that Test cricket and one-day cricket are the pioneers and they should preserve those two formats,” Vaas told PTI. “I think in the future, most of the countries want to play T20s. T20 is the game for the future. “But especially when it comes to Test cricket, Test cricket is dying.
I’m sure that the second Test will be a more interesting one,” he said. You know, this two-match Test series does not really benefit the players, they need more red-ball matches at the highest level,” he said. “We know India is a very good side, they can replace any player at any given point. They have been playing good cricket across Test, T20 and ODIs, and the BCCI has built some excellent infrastructure and taken care of their players. “If you look at Galle, they played excellent Test cricket. They fielded three very good spinners and it was not easy to survive against them. Our guys gave a good fight. “Unfortunately, we don’t get a lot of Test matches. The Sri Lankan cricket board should do something, try to get more Tests. “It’s up to Sri Lanka Cricket. I’m sure they are trying their best with the new transformation committee. They are doing everything to bring this game up,” he detailed.
