LAWRENCE BOOTH

NOI CAN see the arguments for four-day Tests. Not many games reach the fifth day, which is expensive to stage, and some teams would play more aggressively — so we’d still get our fair share of final-day thrillers. Cricket has always evolved and always survived. I’m just not convinced the plan would work. It’s all very well talking about 98 overs in a day, but England and South Africa barely managed 80 during the Boxing Day Test and that’s with the extra half-hour. Unless the authorities get serious about punishing slow over-rates, 98 is pie in the sky. Then there’s the fact that weaker teams will be able to set their stall out for a draw. Five-day cricket leaves you nowhere to hide. And that’s before we get to the weather. Lose half a day to rain, as you regularly do in England, and the draw becomes even more likely. But my main objection is that the impetus behind this idea appears to be commercial. Businessmen have done enough damage to cricket over the years without eroding the form of the game the players still regard as the pinnacle. Cricket’s great gift is to be able to accommodate a match that lasts three hours, as well as one that stretches from Thursday morning to Monday evening, entrancing two nations along the way. Lop a day off a Test and you strike at what makes it unique among the formats — time. Test cricket reveals character like no o other sport. You mess with that at your peril.