Doctor Warne’s remedy
AUSTRALIAN cricket great Shane Warne says four-day Tests are the future for the longest form of the game, which needs to be more “energetic” to maintain its place in the sporting landscape.
Warne, Australia’s leading Test wicket-taker with 708 scalps in 145 matches, has flagged a series of changes to the traditional format to protect it from the rise of the more commercially viable Twenty20.
Adamant Test cricket “brings out the best in players”, Warne advocates the shift to more intense action over four days in his new book No Spin, worried cricket officials aren’t doing their best to protect the game.
As Australia prepares to reenter the Test arena against Pakistan in Dubai on Sunday, the first match since the balltampering tour of South Africa, Warne said no Test first innings should go beyond 130 overs.
The last time Australia played Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, in 2014, the hosts batted the tourists out of the game in the first innings of both Tests, which lasted 145 and 164 overs respectively, and won the series convincingly.
“I’m a big believer in fourday Tests,” Warne wrote. “We need to move the game on.
“Over rates are ridiculously slow these days; I mean, teams struggle to bowl the minimum 90 in the day and most of the time they don’t.
“I’m proposing 384 overs over four days, with a first innings limit of 130 overs.
“That pushes everyone to get on with the game, not drag it out because they can. And, if the overs are not bowled — remember, it’s only 16 an hour — the captain misses the next match.
“Each session should be two hours 10 minutes, and the two breaks for lunch and tea 30 minutes each.
“This would work better for day-night Test matches, which should be played in dry climates only — Adelaide, Barbados, Johannesburg, and most of India, for example.
“The game needs to be more energetic.”
The introduction of the Test Championship, which was announced this year, rules out the chance for official four-day Tests for at least two years.
South Africa played Zimbabwe in an unofficial four-day Test in December last year in Port Elizabeth. The Proteas won the match inside two days.
Warne said players who caused delays in Tests had become “painfully boring to watch”.