All of the cricket boards around the world are trying to balance the rise of shorter formats of the game with the dwindling numbers of Test cricket, the longest format. Apart from Australia and England, where Test cricket is still revered, boards are doing their level best to keep attention on five-day games.
Meanwhile, Sachin Tendulkar, the only player to play 200 Tests has mentioned that lack of quality duels between batsmen and bowlers has led to decreasing interest in the game. The main reason behind it, according to Sachin, is the lack of world-class fast bowlers.
"Rivalries which people invariably looked forward to are no longer there because there are very few world-class fast bowlers right now. That element I am sure is missing. The quality of fast bowling can surely be better without any doubt," Tendulkar told PTI.
“ODI format needs a tweak of two innings of 25 overs per side”, says Sachin Tendulkar
A Sunil Gavaskar vs Andy Roberts, Dennis Lillee or Imran Khan was worth the wait during the 1970s and '80s. Similarly, a Tendulkar vs Glenn McGrath or Wasim Akram used to be a connoisseur's delight.
"The standard of cricket has gone down which is not great news for Test cricket. The standard needs to go up and for that, I would again say that the root cause is the playing surface. I think it has also got to do with the kind of pitches that are provided. If we provide fair pitches where fast bowlers, as well as spinners, get help, then the balance between bat and ball will be restored. If the balance is missing then the contest becomes weak and it fails to grab eyeballs. Test cricket must have good wickets," added the man, who has scored 15,921 runs with 51 hundreds.
He felt that the best surfaces are the ones on which the recently Ashes 2019 between England and Australia was played and was drawn 2-2.
"I feel this year's Ashes had some of the best Test pitches in recent times. Magnificent I would say. The only time they moved to Old Trafford, you saw that Test wasn't as exciting as the ones at the Headingley, or the Lord's Test or for that matter even the one at the Oval. I thought those Test matches were exciting," he said.
(PTI inputs)
