Test cricket should continue to be played over five days, advocate MCC
What's the story?
The custodians of cricket's laws, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) believe that there is no need to truncate the longest format of the game. The MCC Cricket Committee and MCC World Cricket Committee held discussions over four-day Test matches where both the groups agreed that the tradition of the game should not be changed.
The background
With a bunch of lopsided results in Test match cricket, ICC had earlier pitched the proposal of reducing the duration of the game by one day. However, this idea did not get a positive response from the cricket universe. Big names like Virat Kohli, Ravi Shastri, Joe Root, Faf du Plessis and a host of legends have rejected ICC's new idea.
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Although a few players and officials have favored the proposal, the majority is not on their side.
The heart of the matter
MCC issued a statement regarding duration of Test matches on Tuesday (14th January), where the club mentioned that the new model for Tests seems to be profitable however, the committees feel that there is no need to alter the traditional format.
“MCC has noted the recent discussion regarding the future of test cricket and the ICC’s desire to debate the introduction of four-day test cricket to replace the current five-day format in the World Test Championship from 2023. The MCC Cricket committee and MCC World Cricket committee have recently discussed the issue and although they can see some benefits that four-day Test cricket could bring, both committees believe that test cricket should continue to be played over five days."
What's next?
With so much opposition for the four-day Tests, it is unlikely that the fans will witness a truncation in Test matches any soon.