In Future The Finals Should Be On A Home And Away Basis - Inzamam-ul-Haq Comes Up With A 'Fair' Way Of Hosting WTC Final
Updated - 01 Jul 2021, 07:02 PM
Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has suggested a unique way of conducting the final of the ICC World Test Championship. The inaugural event was won by New Zealand last week when they defeated India in Southampton.
However, the concept of a one-off final for a league that ran for two years has received flak. The argument is made that had the final being played on a spin-friendly surface and conditions, as opposed to the pace-friendly ones The Ageas Bowl which assisted the Kiwi bowlers, India would have rolled over their opposition.
Inzamam-ul-Haq has now suggested that in the future the final could be decided in a two-game affair: one Test on the home of each team. He believes that such a procedure would be “more fair” than the one-off final concept used currently. The second WTC cycle will commence next month with India taking on England; the ICC has not decided on the venue for the final yet.
“My advice is that you make it two Tests, devise a points system, play one game in New Zealand – or whoever is the finalist – and the other in India. The result would have come out more fair in that case.
“If it were like the World Cup, where every match is played in the same country including the final, then it was different. So, it is just my opinion that in the future WTCs, the finals should be on a home and away basis, hosted by both the finalists,” Inzamam-ul-Haq said in his YouTube video.
For such a big game, how can you prepare such a pitch: Inzamam-ul-Haq
Inzamam-ul-Haq further blasted the pitch-makers of the WTC Final. He underlined that the game, which went into the last hour of the sixth day, lost more than two days to rain – but still produced a result because the bowlers were on top for most of the time. He reckons the pitch was extremely challenging for the batters and it shouldn’t have been that case.
“This Test match was six days long, and out of that almost four days saw consistent rain and still it got over within 2.5 days.
“No one mentioned this that who gave the idea that such a pitch should be used for the World Test Championship final, where only the bowlers were visible but the batting side went invisible? I don’t understand is that for such a big game, how can you prepare such a pitch,” the legendary batsman exclaimed.
Tagged:
ICC World Test Championship (WTC) Inzamam-ul-Haq New Zealand vs India