KOLKATA, Jan 11: The legendary Clive Lloyd wants to see more Test cricket on the international calendar and prefers a minimum of three red-ball games in a bilateral series.
“At the moment probably they’re having too many T20s and stuff. I’d like to see a little bit more Test cricket. And if you’re playing Test cricket, I’d prefer three Test matches or five,” said the former West Indies skipper during the Ekam Awards night here.
“I don’t think the West Indies should travel to Australia, 12,000 miles, for two Test matches. And it doesn’t make sense. Like the other day, it’s one-all (in India South Africa series). Now the other Test would have shown who was the better of the two teams.”
The 79-year-old, who captained West Indies to two World Cup wins in 1975 and 1979, is also concerned that youngsters are focussing more on playing big shots rather than improving their technique.
“I’ve said time and again that T20 is an exhibition, and Test cricket is an examination. Our youngsters seem to be getting this habit of trying to hit the ball out of the ground so that they can get a contract somewhere else. And I don’t like that,” he said.
“…I suppose it’s giving the young player a better standard of living. But you can’t sacrifice good cricket for that. W now have to have a look at the situation and assess how we can improve it.
“Sure, it’s quite exciting, T20, but I don’t want to lose Test Cricket because of that.”
“Didn’t find anything wrong with Cape Town wicket”
India and South Africa played out the shortest-ever Test cricket when the former emerged victorious within two days at Cape Town.
The match lasted just 107 overs, forcing the ICC to rate the pitch as “unsatisfactory”.
Lloyd, however, didn’t find anything wrong with the wicket.
“I don’t think anything was wrong with the pitch. Somebody made a hundred on that same pitch, on a wearing pitch, so I think it’s just application. And I’m wondering if that had happened in India, with what they would have done to the ground persons,” he said.
“You know, because if you lose in a day and a bit, the first thing they’ll look at is the pitch. India had a turning pitch here the other day, and everybody said some terrible things about the pitch.
“If you’re playing top-class cricket, you should be able to handle those sorts of things.”
There is a huge divide in world cricket with India enjoying nearly 40 per cent of the ICC revenues. England and Australia are the other two teams which enjoy financial clout.
“I couldn’t see all these board members sitting down and saying to the rest of the people, three countries are getting 180 million and the rest are getting 80. And one of them who’s getting 80 million is now nearly 100 years into that association,” he said.
“To me, if you’re now up there with the rest, everybody should get the same thing. Look at the Premier League. Does Manchester United get more than Liverpool? Does Arsenal get more than Chelsea? No. They get the same.
“And the same thing should happen with the Premier League. And don’t forget, West Indies, we have 14 islands whilst the other countries are just one country. “And it takes us a lot of money to hold our tournaments because we’ve got to fly everywhere. We can’t go by boat or train or a bus or anything like that.
“So to me, everybody should get the same. But if you’re at the top, you get a little bit more for being there, or number two, number three. But you must have enough money to look after your cricket. You can’t give three countries a great set of money. It is not fair at all.” (PTI)
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