Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar reckons the proposal to mandate four-day Test cricket at the ICC level is a major conspiracy against the Asian teams and the Rawalpindi Express is backing the ever-powerful BCCI to ensure it doesn't go through.
Various full-members, outside the well-to-do trio of India, England and Australia, are struggling since the ICC funding model was heavily skewed against them and find hosting Test cricket a major burden to their financial health.
Read Also: Sachin Tendulkar provides tactical reasons for his stance against four-day Tests
They are the ones who have pushed the governing body to consider doing away with the fifth day so that the long-form game becomes a slightly more cost-efficient exercise, especially when played from Thursdays to Sundays, possibly in D/N version, with increased number of overs each day.
"Everywhere there is this conspiracy, a theory against Asian teams these days. I feel this (reduction of Test to four days) is totally against Asian teams," Akhtar said in a video posted on his Youtube channel. "I feel this idea is rubbish no one should be interested in it."
Akhtar believes the new BCCI regime led by president Sourav Ganguly should lead the bandwagon against this proposal. "ICC cannot implement this rule without the permission of BCCI," he said. "BCCI along with all the smart cricketers are standing against this idea, specially spinners from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh who dominate and thrive in a series will not let this happen."
"Sourav Ganguly is a smart intelligent person. He will never want to see Test cricket getting damaged. He would want it to survive and see India excel in the format."
The 44-year-old is happy, like him, few other big names from the cricket fraternity have also openly expressed their displeasure with the idea.
"Sachin is spot on in his criticism. What will the spinners do? Danish Kaneria, Mushtaq Ahmed, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble have taken 400-500 wickets. What will happen to them?" Akhtar said.
(Inputs from PTI)
