Indian skipper Virat Kohli has made an appeal to all the national cricket boards to take more responsibility in saving Test cricket as he also expressed that he doesn’t find the need of having any other format at the moment. Kohli also hinted that England Cricket Board’s initiative of starting the new 100-ball format doesn’t convince him as a great testimony for the brand of cricket.
During in the recent interview with Wisden Cricket Monthly, Virat said, “Obviously for the people involved in the whole process and the set-up it will be really exciting but I cannot think of one more format, to be honest. I’m already very… I wouldn’t say frustrated, but sometimes it can get very demanding of you when you have to play so much cricket regularly. I feel somewhere the commercial aspect is taking over the real quality of cricket and that hurts me.”
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He further added, “Honestly, I don’t want to be a testing sort of a cricketer for any new format. I don’t want to be someone who’s going to be part of that World XI who comes and launches the 100-ball format. I love playing the IPL, I love watching the BBL because you’re working towards something, competing against high-quality sides and it gets your competitive juices flowing. That’s what you want as a cricketer. I’m all for the leagues, but not to experiment.”
In order to save the longest format of the game, Kohli has suggested that the cricketing bodies all around the globe need to be giving more importance to the first-class cricket rather than focussing on the cash-rich T20 leagues. He reckons that the players will lose the motivation to play Test cricket if the boards don’t take responsibility to respect the first-class cricket.
The facilities and the standard at the domestic level need to be increased in order to make the longest format of the game last longer, otherwise, the aspiring cricketer will start getting into that mindset where they will start finding the easy way out.
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Kohli also added that Test cricket gives the ultimate ‘job satisfaction’ as it is still the ultimate format for him. He said, “I cannot explain to you the job satisfaction that you get when you do well in Test cricket, because you know how demanding it is. I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere. I don’t even see it getting compressed to four days. It should not be tinkered with. I think the Test Championship is going to give a huge push to Test cricket. It makes every series more competitive, and there’s going to be ups and downs throughout the Championship, which I really look forward to.”
