Staff Writer – Archi
At a time when many former cricketers have expressed their fear that Twenty20 cricket, the shortest format of the game, will kill Test cricket, West Indian great Brian Lara expressed a different view.
According to the left-handed batsman, the growing popularity of Twenty20 internationals will not harm Test cricket as he believed the two formats of the game can very well thrive together.
“I believe now with T20 cricket a lot more people are watching the game,” Lara told reporters in Bangladesh where he is an ambassador for the country’s T20 Premier League.
“Just remember, we are all entertainers. And if this kind of cricket brings interest to the people, cricketers will be happy to indulge in it,” he said.
However, one of the greatest batsman of all time, he felt Test cricket is still very important and so are ODIs (One-Day Internationals). “But T20 should be there too because of the crowd factor,” Lara added.
Lara, who played 131 Test matches and 299 One-dayers in his playing career, never had the opportunity to play Twenty20 cricket.
Lara believes the growing popularity of Twenty20 cricket will help West Indies generate more interest in the game among the younger generation at a time when the game is losing its popularity in the Island nation. However, West Indies are the current world champions in this format of the game.
“In the Caribbean we found it difficult to encourage teenagers to take up the game,” said Lara. “We are now launching our own domestic T20 competition. We will try to seek more youngsters play the game in the Caribbean.” he said.
Lara pointed out some players who are doing well in the T20 format, but are also bringing in excitement to the longer versions of the games too.
“You look at (David) Warner from Australia, (Chris) Gayle and (Virender) Sehwag. They are strong players in the T20 format. They bring a lot more excitement.
“You look at Warner bat in a Test match. He can easily score 150 before tea. That’s what people want to see. And I think the effect will be a positive one,” he said.
Lara, who scored more than 10,000 runs in both Tests and ODIs, added that it was unfair to blame the format for bowlers losing interest in Test cricket.
“What I think is that the bowlers are pulling away from Test cricket probably due to the amount of work. However, the money on offer in T20 cricket is an attractive proposition for players,” he said.
He agreed that with time more and more players might opt for T20 games only, but that will in no way pave the death of Test cricket.
“You’ll find a lot more players making themselves available for T20s. But all in all I think Test cricket is still very strong. This kind of competition (Bangladesh Premier League) will make cricket more exciting I believe. Both can go on simultaneously,” Lara hoped.
