LONDON: The chairperson of the International Cricket Council (ICC) – Greg Barclay has raised doubts over the certainty of Women’s Tests in the future landscape.
Barclay, while talking to the BBC backed the idea of five-day Women’s Tests but at the same time questioned the certainty of the longest format of the game in the future landscape.
“Most people would say five days are required,” Barclay told the BBC. “If they are going play it, my personal view is they should have five days to play it in.”
The ICC chair further opined on the importance of domestic structures to play Test cricket and claimed they do not exist in any of the playing nations.
“To play Test cricket you have got to have structures domestically. They don’t really exist in any of the countries at the moment. I can’t really see women’s Test cricket evolving at any particular speed,” Barclay stated.
“That’s not to say any countries that choose to play Test cricket can’t do so. But I don’t see it being any part of the landscape moving forward to any real extent at all,” he added.
The ICC chairperson then drew a comparison between the shorter formats and Test cricket and termed the former as the future.
“Shorter formats of cricket are the way of the future for the sport, [ODIs] and [T20] cricket are more appealing for fans,” he claimed.
“It is where broadcasters are putting their resources,” Barclay said. “It is what is driving the money.”
It is pertinent to mention here that Women’s Tests are played for four days as opposed to Men’s five-day Tests. A total of five matches have been played since 2017 and were all ended in a draw.
Furthermore, Australia, England, and India are the only countries to play Test cricket in the last five years.
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