With yet another format of cricket being launched, will Test Twenty achieve its goal of attracting younger people to the sport, or will it cause even more damage to longer formats?
Test Twenty is an interesting concept. Contested over one day, each game will include four innings of 20 overs a side.
The first edition of international league, which starts in January next year, has some backing from global cricket legends, with the advisory board consisting of former Proteas star AB de Villiers, as well as Harbhajan Singh, Clive Lloyd and Matthew Hayden.
It will feature six teams – one each from the UAE, England and the United States, and three from India – and the squads will include players from around the world.
Too many formats?
However, cricket already has three international formats (Tests, ODI matches and T20 games), as well as other unique formats played in leagues such as The Hundred in the UK and the T10 in Abu Dhabi.
And with fans seemingly preferring shorter, more action-packed versions of the sport, fewer people are attending Test and ODI matches
Not only will this latest Test Twenty format water down the sport even further, but if it takes off, it could mean the death of at least one of the longer formats because there is only so much space on the calendar and something has to break.
It’s not that other sports don’t have different formats – rugby has League and Sevens, football has five-a-side Futsal, and netball has Fast5 – and it is important that codes include some variation and continue innovating.
Trying too hard
But cricket seems to be trying too hard to expand as much as it can, rather than focusing on the formats that already exist and finding ways to attract people to longer versions of the game.
Perhaps people don’t have the time or patience to watch longer formats, but purists enjoy them for good reason because they require more skill to succeed. And without them, the quality of the sport will take a knock.
It would be a real shame if Test or ODI cricket died, but if the sport continues to expand as much as it is, that seems inevitable.
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