Only India, Australia, England, and New Zealand are doing well in Test cricket and everyone else is at the bottom of the rankings, says Shoaib Akhtar
Shoaib Akhtar is of the opinion that the commercialization is hurting the Test cricket
|Shoaib Akhtar has stated that only four nations -- India, Australia, England, and New Zealand are doing well in Test matches. Akhtar further criticized ICC for commercializing the game and providing stimulus for growth of the T20 leagues around the world, and not promoting Test cricket enough.
The IPL 2021 culminated on October 15. Now, T20 World Cup 2021 is underway, which had started on October 17. T20 has been the most popular format for the last few years. The start of IPL was the main reason behind the popularity of the format and soon various leagues all over the world were played. Former Pakistan Shoaib Akhtar is of the opinion that Test cricket is being restricted to only four countries and ICC is not promoting the format. He also added that ICC is promoting the T20 format only and in the next four years, we would see a football-like structure in cricket where there will be leagues and two World Cups.
“Why is the ICC not promoting Test cricket? Test matches, who are playing? India, Australia, England, and New Zealand. Only these four teams are doing well, and everyone else is at the bottom of the ranking. In Pakistan, Test cricket has been left behind. Pakistan are No 7 in Test cricket. Why is the ICC promoting T20 cricket so much? It seems we have forgotten other formats. With the amount of money being injected into T20 cricket, I am scared that in the next 4-5 years, we will have only leagues all over the world and then 2 World Cups, much like what is happening with football,” he stated.Â
Akhtar is of the opinion that the commercialization of the sport is taking focus away from Test cricket.Â
“When you have commercialized cricket this much, then obviously interest will be generated for T20 cricket. New leagues are coming up, and the cushion is being provided by the ICC. I don’t mind the IPL and even 10 other leagues, but the focus should be on promoting Test cricket. When you are commercializing cricket, there will be fallbacks. A player will feel even if he flops at the highest level, he has the league cricket like IPL to fall back,” said the 46-year-old.
