England’s Anderson concerned about future of testcricket
whatever you can to upset the opposition till the time you don’t get personal,” the 35-year-old left-hander added.
“These are not robots playing the game, and when you are playing for your country and there are so many expectations on your shoulder, emotions can take over sometimes.” (Reuters) - England fast bowler James Anderson is worried that test cricket is losing popularity as attendances for the longer format are declining, with younger crowds preferring to watch Twenty20.
Anderson, England’s all-time leading test wicket-taker, said the launch of Twenty20 - the first international was in 2005 - and its growing young fanbase had hit crowds for test matches.
“There is a concern. I think if you look at attendances around the world, in test cricket they’re on the decline and it’s probably only in England that we sell out most days for test matches,” the 34-year-old told Sky Sports yesterday.
“Obviously, it’s great to see Twenty20 the way it is, drawing crowds and getting young kids into the sport, but there are still a lot of players out there who want to play test cricket and see it as the pinnacle. In the future, it’s something that has got to be looked at,” he added.
Anderson, recovering from a shoulder injury, is set to join Lancashire on the county circuit for the next three months before England host the first test against South Africa in July.