Carl Hooper has a solution to revive Test cricket in Windies

140 years have passed since Test cricket came widespread recognition in the year 1877. There was an era when Windies dominated the game and they did that with utmost authority. Towards the end of that golden phase was a cricketer par excellence in Carl Hooper, who played 102 Tests, led the team to quite a few memorable victories and scored 5635 runs with the bat.

For the India vs Windies series, Hooper is back in India after 16 long years, and after watching the national team’s poor performance in the Test series, he is hopeful that the longest format of the game will still remain alive in the Windies. As a solution to the poor state of Test cricket in that part of the world, Hooper recommends that the board starts offering central contracts to the Test players and the best team should be chosen for the longest format.

“The board has to start planning for long. We might lose another generation of players but that is okay if you can keep the future talents. The governments, the business people need to get involved and make sure that the board can ensure a central contract that can match or at least come near the T20 contracts the players are getting. This will also help revive Tests in the Caribbean. People want to be associated with a winning side and they will come back to the grounds if you put the best team out there for Tests,” he was quoted as saying by TOI.

IPL spoiled Windies Test cricket?

Earlier this year, Hooper had also blamed the IPL for the poor state of Test cricket in his country. He had said that since franchise cricket is lucrative, most cricketers choose to play it and ignore the longest format. There have been endless disputes regarding contracts between the Windies players and the cricket board, and until that ends, the future ahead doesn’t look too bright for the Caribbean team.

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