Sachin Tendulkar feels "interesting tracks" are the key for Test cricket's revival

Tendulkar believes it's the nature of decks that hold key to a more enterprising traditional game.

Good pitches produce good Test Cricket | Getty

Good pitches are key to Test cricket's revival, reckons legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who believes it's the 22-yard pitch where the game's stakeholders around the world need to focus on as they strive to make the traditional format more enterprising for the general audiences in modern times. 

Tendulkar cited the example of Lord's Test played last week when England and Australia battled hard on a very fine track for supremacy in the Ashes 2019. 

"The heart of Test cricket is the kind of surface that you play on. If you provide good pitches, cricket cannot be boring, cricket cannot be damp, and (there will always) be those exciting moments, exciting bowling spells, great batting and that is what people want to see," he was quoted as saying by PTI

"Smith got injured, unfortunately, that was a big blow to him but Test cricket was exciting when Jofra Archer challenged him, it suddenly became exciting and the focus shifted to Test cricket. At Lord's, they lost almost a day and a half, but the Test match got exciting even on the last day when England picked those wickets and Australia had to survive. Test cricket suddenly became exciting and that is how it should be," he added.

Tendulkar, the format's highest run-getter till date, gave an example of Test Cricket's recall ability by stressing that the ODI World Cup was played just recently and yet everyone's talking about the start of the inaugural World Test Championship. 

"People almost kind of forgot that four-five weeks ago, there was World Cup being played in England, nobody is talking about that, everyone is talking about Test cricket," he said. 

"I think Test cricket is going to revive if we produce interesting tracks, but if the tracks are flat and dead then Test cricket is going to find its challenges. I know this Test World Championship has been announced but even to have this World Championship, you got to make cricket interesting, just by having another championship, cricket is not going to get interesting," he concluded.  

(Inputs from PTI)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 25 Aug, 2019

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