Dubai: England players — past and present — have agreed that more needs to be done to preserve Test cricket in light of Ben Stokes’ recent ‘life changing’ £1.7 million (Dh7.78 million) deal to play for Rising Pune Supergiants in next month’s Indian Premier League (IPL).
Speaking on the sidelines of Tuesday’s press conference to announce this weekend’s six-team Emirates Airline T20 tournament to be held at the ICC Academy, Birmingham Bears sporting director and former England spinner Ashley Giles, said: “It’s positive that England players are being picked for these tournaments as they weren’t getting these big contracts before, firstly that shows that our cricket is in good shape.
“But I still think there’s a certain amount of threat around it, because when you see these deals, where are kids going to push their energies?
“Test cricket will always remain the most important form and the toughest test but when players start earning that sort of money to play for six weeks, there’s a danger that we will start to lose our best players to the T20 circus. And it is a bit of a circus, a necessary circus, but I hope in the future we still see guys coming through that still desperately want to wear whites and play Test cricket.”
Both current England bowler Jimmy Anderson, of Lancashire Lightning and former England all-rounder Paul Collingwood, of Durham Jets, said there was room for both formats, but added that Test cricket did need protecting.
“Since T20 has come in, it’s been great for the sport and has got more people involved and watching,” said Anderson. “So, I think cricket needs T20, but it also needs Test cricket.
“I don’t see it as a threat, I think there’s room for both, but Test cricket does need taking care of to keep people interested.
“I just hope Test cricket doesn’t fall away. I still think it’s the pinnacle of our sport and I know a lot of others do too, I just hope we can keep the interest going.”
Collingwood agreed: “I still think that 95 per cent of youngsters, if asked, still want to play Test cricket for their country, the only threat unfortunately is that fewer people are watching it.
“We need to somehow make Test cricket more competitive with maybe a league or something.
“Cricketers only have a short career of maybe 10-15 years to make as much money as they can. And these T20 leagues are very lucrative, so you can’t blame them for going and playing there.
“What authorities need to do is bridge that gap so there’s still money for players in international cricket, otherwise international cricket will fall behind T20 in the future.
“We’ve just got to keep Test cricket alive, it’s been through a lot in its 120-year existence, probably more than its going through now, and it’s survived.
“It’s survived because to me, it is the greatest game you can play. It test you to the limit mentally, physically, tactically and technically. Playing in a national series is as good as any other form.
“Hopefully, we can continue to have that attitude towards Test cricket and we can somehow find a way to bring back spectators.”
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