Cricket Australia (CA) is open-minded about the Test cricket and also wants to play the four-day Test match in near future. While the ICC Test Championship is going begin from the next year, Australia is looking for the four-day Test matches outside that championship.
As the huge progress of limited-overs cricket and hectic worldwide cricket schedule, including the T20 leagues, the five-day Test cricket is failing to gather the big number of spectators consistently. In addition, the cricketers are also finding tough to sustain their top fitness in this hectic cricketing schedule, including long travelling.
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While the Test cricket history has several changes on its number of days’ play, CA is open-minded on the four-day Test match. Though the upcoming inaugural Test championship, which will be played between 2019 and 2021, will have only the five-day Test matches, CA feels they can go with the four-day Test cricket outside the Test championship.
CA CEO Kevin Roberts told SEN Radio, “Outside the Test Championship that’s the opportunity. The Test Championship is five-day Test cricket out to 2021, so that doesn’t change, but outside of that there are other possibilities to consider and beyond that, beyond 2021 what it might look like. There’s a bit to be said for it isn’t there, and it’s certainly something I think we need to be open-minded to down the track.
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“The average duration of a Test match is just a shade over four days and certainly without jumping to conclusions that that is the right solution, it is one possibility we’ve got to be open to. There’s been timeless Tests over the years, we know there were even three-day Tests, so Test cricket has not been five days in duration forever, and I think the concept of four days going forward is something we need to be open to without jumping to conclusions.”
During the 2019-21 Test championship, Australia has a one-off home Test schedule against Afghanistan in November 2020. CA feels it will be a good time to organise the four-day Test match.
While the most of official and regular first-class matches now have been organised as the four-day games, South Africa played a four-day day/night Test match against Zimbabwe at Port Elizabeth in the last year.
