Test cricket dying claim

TEST cricket is “dying”, the chairman of the sport’s governing body warned yesterday, adding the new world championship could help save the longest format of the game.

While Tests in Australia and England still draw sizeable crowds, filling stadiums and boosting interest in the fiveday game have been a challenge in the rest of the cricket world for years.

“We are trying to see whether [the] Test championship can generate interest, be- cause Test cricket is actually dying to be honest,” International Cricket Council chairman Shashank Manohar told reporters in Dhaka.

“So to improve the situation, we are trying ways and means. The [ICC] board ... came to a conclusion that if we start a Test championship, it would keep Test cricket alive and generate more interest in the game.”

The Ashes series between archrivals England and Australia will kick off the World Test Championship in July, and the two top sides will face off in a final in 2021.

Manohar, who is in Dhaka to watch the final of the Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 tournament, said the shortest version of the game now provides maximum ratings for broadcasters.

“Nowadays, people don’t have five days ... to watch a Test match,” he said.

T20s are “over in 3.5 hours, like watching a movie. Therefore, it is picking up very fast”.