Graeme Smith Bats for Elimination of T20I Cricket from Modern Game

Former South Africa skipper, Graeme Smith urged ICC to monitor the volume of T20 cricket in the current schedule of International cricket.

At a time when players are switching career paths, sacrificing International cricket to feature in the white ball game, Smith requested ICC to do away with T20I cricket.

However, Smith was in favour of domestic franchise-based T20 competitions, along with Tests and ODI cricket, with the marquee World events.

“Maybe the ICC needs to look at six months of T20 cricket domestically and six months of international cricket. I don’t think T20 cricket should be played at the International level,” Graeme Smith mentioned from the sidelines of CEAT Cricket Awards.

“My opinion is to retain domestic T20 competitions and have international cricket, Test and ODIs and have a World Cup every couple of years,” added Smith.

Also, the former Protean reckoned the governing body should be looking at investing in saving the future of the oldest format of the game.

“There needs to be an investment. Maybe spend more money marketing Test cricket. So much money is spent in marketing the T20 format. Maybe there can be money marketing the stories and histories in Test cricket,” Smith said.

Further, Smith praised India captain Virat Kohli for valuing all formats of the game, and setting high standards for others, tending towards franchise cricket.

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The problem now is that teams are touring so badly: Smith

“What’s great for the game is someone like Virat Kohli. Who wants to do well in Test cricket and be successful and set standard for everyone else. As long as people like him consider Test cricket valuable. It’s important for the rest of the world,” the 37-year from Jo’Burg stated.

In conclusion, the former South Africa opener pointed towards the tendency of modern players being poor visitors and wished to eliminate this plague from the game.

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“The problem now is that teams are touring so badly. Some of the greatest memories of my career are the two series I drew in India. The two each I won in Australia and England and the victory in Pakistan,”

“So the memories you got of winning in those tough situations is hugely rewarding. I hate to see that go out of the game,” concluded Graeme Smith.