Jason Holder Feels Test Cricket Should Be Incentivized And Follow The Football Model

West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder feels that in order to save Test cricket from extinction, which he believes might happen in a few years time, the model of Football should be adopted wherein international fixtures have a separate time frame and window while most of the focus is emphasized on club matches.

Jason Holder also feels that there should be at least a fixed wage limit for players playing Test cricket so that they don’t get lured by lucrative big-money contracts offered by franchise owners worldwide. Holder himself is a victim of this situation, choosing to snub national team duty for a franchise T20 league in UAE.

As the West Indies are playing a 2-match Test series in Australia, Holder is gearing up to take part in the 2nd edition of the International League T20 (ILT20) in UAE which kicked off yesterday. The all-rounder will rock the colors of Dubai Capitals who are set to take on MI Emirates later today at the Dubai International Stadium.

He is not the only notable absentee from the West Indies as Kyle Mayers has also snubbed national duty in order to feature for the Durban Super Giants in the ongoing SA20 league. Their decision to ignore Test cricket and accept franchise contracts has created plenty of controversy around the world of cricket but Jason Holder has come forward to share his opinion on how Test cricket can be saved from a certain death.

The 32-year-old started off by criticizing world cricket’s big three – India, England, and Australia for getting most of the ICC funds and preventing smaller cricket playing boards like the West Indies from having a constant cash flow. Holder believes that the current Test structure is unsustainable and with very minimal finances, it’s impossible for them to build and improve their infrastructure.

He claimed that India and Australia can’t always be the top teams and stated that there should be a particular window in a year to facilitate Test cricket so that every team can be at their full strength.

“The only way you can honestly see Test cricket being saved is… if you have a window for Test cricket in a year so that you can have your best players available to play there. And on top of that, you need to compensate players fairly. It can’t be a situation where Australia and India are up there, and all the other teams are way, way down below,” Jason Holder said in a chat with Hindustan Times.

“Its Rubbish”, Jason Holder Disagrees When Asked About West Indies Players Focusing Only On 1 Format

Jason Holder had a major disagreement when he was asked about the West Indies players prioritizing T20 cricket solely and ignoring ODIs and Tests which also saw them failing to qualify for the 50-over World Cup for the first time in their history.

He reminded about the number of West Indies players taking part in the leagues all around the world and claimed that the numbers would remain the same if there were ODI or Test leagues around the world as well. “I think that’s rubbish. When you look at the amount of West Indies players we have in leagues, we have so many players who play there. If there were 50-over leagues, we’d have a lot of players playing in them. If there were Test or 4-day leagues, we’d have a lot of players playing there too.” – Holder added.

“That Might Be A Model Going Forward”, Jason Holder On Cricket Adopting Football Model

The Barbados-born all-rounder who has 379 wickets for West Indies across all formats, expressed his concerns over the growing prevalence of T20 and T10 leagues around the world whose contracts are so lucrative that players find it hard to say no.

Jason Holder also felt that if that’s the case then international matches will have to have a separate window just like football and believes that is going to be the model going forward.

“I think, maybe, cricket may go in the football model where you have an international window, and you’ve got the franchise window. Maybe that might be a model going forward, but who knows?” – Jason Holder concluded.