I Worry For The First Time About The Future Of Test Cricket - David Lloyd On The Emergence Of Lucrative T20 Tournaments

Former England cricketer David Lloyd expressed concerns over the future of Test cricket. Since the advent of T20 cricket when the first match between England women and New Zealand women was played in 2004, many administrators of the game have restructured white-ball cricket to gain commercial benefits to a larger extent.

Not just boards like BCCI (IPL), Cricket Australia (BBL), PCB (PSL), ECB (Vitality Blast), BCB (BPL) and NZC (Super Smash) have their own annual T20 tournaments but the International Cricket Council (ICC) also push the shortest format by allowing the window of T20 World Cups for every two years.

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However, one cannot ignore the pinnacle of cricket which is the Test format, the oldest format of the game. And thanks to the World Test Championship (WTC) for attracting eyeballs.

There’s no room for Test cricket as we know it: David Lloyd

Lloyd, who played nine Test matches for England, feels that Test cricket will soon diminish because of the unhealthy scheduling of T20 matches around the year.

“There’s no room for Test cricket as we know it, and my guess is that in future we will only see the iconic series: like the Ashes, England vs West Indies and England vs India. I worry for the first time about the future of Test match cricket,” Lloyd wrote in his column for Daily Mail.

“Why? Because I can’t see room for it given this saturated scheduling. The nature of people is to want more and so if India have a Premier League, Pakistan want one too, so do Australia, South Africa, everybody does.”

“Slots then have to be found to play these and the same players at the IPL are in demand elsewhere for the rest of the year. Get picked up in IPL auctions and you can be paid astronomical amounts. It’s such a lucrative tournament and fantastic in terms of quality but it is doing untold damage to the rest of cricket,” he added.

South African international players preferred IPL 2022 overs Bangladesh Test series

South Africa is currently hosting Bangladesh for a two-match Test series with the first Test is underway at the Kingsmead in Durban.

South Africa’s regular Test players like Kagiso Rabada (PBKS), Marco Jansen (SRH), Anrich Nortje (DC), Lungi Ngidi (DC), Aiden Markram (SRH) and Rassie van der Dussen (RR) opted to skip the Test series in order to be available for their respective IPL franchise teams.

Also Read: There Will Be A Time When 50-Over Cricket Will Be Played At World Cup Only: Michael Vaughan On Future Of ODI Cricket