‘Growing T20 worrying for Tests’

MUMBAI: Former England cricketers Nasser Hussain and David Lloyd have admitted that the growing number of T20 leagues across the world is one of the prime reasons why several cricketers have started to turn their backs on Test cricket.

England internationals Alex Hales and Adil Rashid are the latest entrants of the growing list. And the former cricketers feel that it’s nothing but simple mathematics that these cricketers follow while opting for the formats. As against a five-day Test, a T20 game lasts only for a few hours and also doesn’t drain one to the extent that the longest format of the game does.

Also, there are options that these cricketers can opt from these days as besides the lucrative contracts of the Indian Premier League (April-May) and the Big Bash League (December-January), the Pakistan Super League (February-March), Natwest T20 Blast (July-September), Caribbean Premier League (AugustSeptember), Shpageeza Cricket League (September), Bangladesh Premier League (November-December) and the Super Smash T20 (December-January) offer cricketers a wide range of leagues to choose from. South Africa is also set to launch the T20 Global League in November while Afghanistan Premier League is slated to be launched in October, later this year.

That would leave only the

month of June without a country hosting a domestic T20 league. “The lads are just doing the maths. They are the same as anyone else,” Mail Online quoted former England skipper Nasser Hussain as saying. “We could talk about how important county cricket was for us — Bumble played all his career at Lancashire and I spent all mine at Essex — but that’s old school. T20 is less work, more money, more people watching and probably more fun. What would you do?”

David Lloyd reiterated his words. “It’s the changing face of cricket. There are so many Twenty20 competitions globally that players are maximising their earnings. If you can be paid twice as much for half the amount of work there are not many who are going to turn it down. I expect a lot more players to do it,” he said.

On being asked if this was a threat to Test cricket, both Lloyd and Hussain admitted that respective cricketing boards should create a platform by which the five-day format is marketed in an attractive manner to the crowd. Speaking on the tectonic shift over the past decade, Hussain further added: “Three or four years ago the T20 leagues were a retirement option for players like Kevin Pietersen and Brendon McCullum. Then they started to attract younger players like AB de Villiers, but now it’s people in their prime like Hales and Rashid. That is a concern and it will become very worrying if, say, that 18-year-old says it is all he is going to play.”

Three or four years ago the T20 leagues were a retirement option .... it will become worrying if, say, that 18yearold says it is all he is going to play.

N HUSSAIN, Former England captain

If you can be paid twice as much for half the work there are not many who are going to turn it down. I expect more players do it.

D LLOYD, Former England player