Dean Jones bats for Test cricket World Cup

Former Australian cricketer Dean Jones has come out in all support for a World Cup of Test cricket. The dying format of the game has seen garnering very less crowds in the recent past. Barring the Tests in Australia and England, the matches played elsewhere has been a witness of sparse crowd. Amidst such precarious situation, the former Aussie believes that something has to be done in order to preserve the oldest format of the game.

As per the recent reports in Cricbuzz, Dean Jones spoke at length about what could possibly help save the future of Test cricket. He cited that the Test series have very less significance. Unless there is a purpose to play for, like a World Cup, there is nothing that can save the Test format. He wished for Test World Cup in 2021.

“Test cricket is in a bit of a pickle…what do these Test series mean? They mean nothing. I think we need a Test World Cup. We need meaning and purpose behind Test cricket. The future tours program will be finished by 2019…2020 we will surely have to have a World T20, so that means a Test World Cup could be held in 2021,” quoted Dean Jones.

He further added that there are a few changes that needs to be made in Test cricket. He remarked that one such change could be to shorten the length to four days. Five days of cricket is a little bit too long, he believes. Recently, a proposal was made to have a Test championship with two groups. The first group with top 7 teams and the second with the next 5 teams. However, the idea was quashed by the Asian boards that was headed by the BCCI. Dean Jones reflected that in order to keep the audiences engaged, the length of the sport matters a great deal. He also urged the Asian boards to take the plans into consideration.

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“Five-day (Tests) is way too long, it can’t keep people’s attention. The game is based around TV, if you don’t hold them for four hours then you’re in trouble. If you look at all the great sports events around the world, they are built for TV…for four hours. Even the Augusta (golf major tournament), they only show on TV for four hours even though they play all day….they only show the telecast for four hours,” said Jones.

“We’ve played timeless Tests…Tests after the war were only three-day matches. I think the game needs to keep changing. There is only one law that hasn’t changed in the game of cricket and that’s the length of the pitch. Every other law has been manipulated and tweaked since its inception. We need to keep this game sexy,” he added further. “If the Asian countries don’t gravitate towards Test cricket, then we’ve lost it. Even if Australia and England love it, we have lost it,” he conceded.