What is Aussie great Mark Taylor’s radical solution to save Test cricket? Will it mark the beginning of demise of the longest format?
He shed light on the advantages this rule will bring, at the same he wants more Tests to get fit into the schedule.
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Mark Taylor; Australia's Test team
Test cricket is slowly dying to pave more way to white ball cricket, especially to the franchise-owned matches, claimed several renowned names from the cricket fraternity. South Africa are already playing less red-ball cricket, and most of the cricket-playing nations have started their own domestic cash-rich leagues.
Youngsters get attracted to them, and at the same time, several cricketers started preferring them ahead of red-ball cricket. The change which is slowly occurring, plus the jam-packed cricketing calendar is not without its critics. Many experts, former, and even current cricketers have been vocal about the same, coming out with different types of suggestions to protect the longest format.
Recently, former Australia captain Mark Taylor stated that to protect Test cricket, it should be reduced to four days. He shed light on the advantages this rule will bring, at the same he wants more Tests to get fit into the schedule. Mark Taylor opined that no one wants to see a score of 400 or 500 hundred in every innings. And if a team reaches around 350, it will be just enough to make cricket more interesting. He believes that a 500-plus total rarely leads to a good game of cricket.
“I think cricket should move with the times and bring in four-day Test matches. I think it just works better,” he told Nine’s Sports Sunday. “Players like to have three days off between games, so four-day Test matches work. So, I think it works well and it also puts the onus on skippers to be a little bit more adventurous at times.“
Mark Taylor wants the teams to focus on their games and not on pitches
When he was asked if this change can turn out to be the first step to mark the end of Tests, Taylor said that the death of red-ball cricket has already started by citing South Africa’s example which “has requested less Test cricket for the future“. He also lamented over the schedule which is “becoming more and more cramped all the time“.
Taylor then went on to give his opinions on the “poor” Indore pitch. He agreed that when a team goes to India, such low and slow turning pitches are prepared and there’s nothing wrong with that because it’s the way a team expects to play in India.
But the 58-year-old advised both the teams, Australia and India, to concentrate solely on playing the game and not the pitches. He questioned India’s request to prepare a green top in Ahmedabad, where the fourth Test will be played from March 9.
India captain Rohit Sharma reportedly asked the curators to prepare a surface that will provide aid to the pacers. Taylor thinks that the only reason India requested this is because Australia won the third Test and proceeded to the ICC World Test Championship. So India will want to prepare on bouncy tracks to face Australia at The Oval.
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