Pakistan’s former captain and batting legend warned Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) along with other cricket boards of the world that promoting T20’s doesn’t necessarily mean trimming down the number of Test matches.
Inzamam was seen sending a strong message to save Test matches on his YouTube channel, The Match Winner. Excerpts from it –
“I don’t mind if they want to play more T20Is for practice or money but Test cricket should not be sacrificed for this,” Inzamam said in a nine-minute video.
Wahab Riaz quit Test cricket in June last year. Amir announced his decision to retire from international cricket last year in December after stating mental torture by management of his national board as a reason.
Having played a whopping 120 Test himself, Inzamam explained why Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir (aged 35 and 29 years respectively) left Test format so early in their career. He also pointed out that its PBC’s responsibility to stop the exodus of players from Test cricket.
“If you remember that when Amir decided to retire from Test cricket, he faced a lot of criticism for preferring T20Is and league cricket over Test matches. The same happened with Wahab Riaz as well. But now the board is giving the same message by replacing Test matches with T20Is. How can you stop the players from quitting Test cricket, in the future, if you are pursuing the same line of thought?” – he added.
The statement came after a three-match Test series was reduced to two Test matches which Pakistan is scheduled to play from August 12 to August 24, against West Indies in the Caribbean Islands. A Test match was compensated with increasing two T20Is than scheduled ones.
A strong advocate of Tests, Inzamam requested International Cricket Council (ICC) and other boards to stop pumping out money from T20’s.
“I request the ICC and other boards to stop running after money because when the players will adopt the same approach, you will get hurt,” said the former Pakistan captain.
Pakistani legend believes that ignoring Test matches and promoting T20’s for monetary gains will hurt world cricket and Pakistan cricket in the long run.
“If you wanted more practice for T20 World Cup, we should have asked them for T20Is without reducing Test matches. If you ignore Test matches, it will hurt our cricket in the long run,” stated Inzamam.
