Recommendations will be taken forward: Anil Kumble

Former Indian skipper Anil Kumble chaired an ICC meeting at the home of cricket, Lords with the prime focus of discussion on Test cricket. It is understood that the council has a few issues concerning a plethora of disciplines in Test cricket in particular.

“The main thing that came out of the meeting was regarding Test cricket. The new structure was discussed and everybody was positive and forthcoming in supporting that. The committee acknowledged the importance of efforts being made to promote and grow Test cricket, be it through the introduction of meaningful competition structures, better pitches, and marketing,” Anil Kumble.

“Our recommendations will now be taken forward to the next ICC Chief Executives’ Committee and the ICC Board meeting in Edinburgh in July.”

Reports suggest that the committee raised concerns over the quality of pitches in the five-day format. The agenda was prompted by the Nagpur wicket provided for the India v South Africa Test match.

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In November 2015, India hosted South Africa in a four-match Test series with the first Test played at Nagpur. The quality of the wicket was so poor that the match wound up on Day three. Moreover, all of the20 South African wickets fell to the three Indian spinners with Ravichandran Ashwin ending with the bulk of the lot. The venue for the third Test of the four-match series was termed ‘poor’ by ICC match referee Jeff Crowe and handed an official warning after 40 wickets fell on the first three days, spinners accounting for 33 of it.

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The committee also discussed on the promotion of Test cricket with Pink-ball Tests becoming an absolute necessity. That said, the committee stressed that there was a need to deliver it at a consistently high standard across all member countries for the concept to be a hit. There was also a lengthy discussion about the future use of technology.