Icc To Tackle Its Greatest Test: Keeping Tests Relevant

The Sunday Age

Sunday October 19, 2008

Chloe Saltau

IT WILL be one of cricket's greatest responsibilities, in an era of fast cricket and fast cash, to ensure there is another 16-year-old like Sachin Tendulkar who can make 12,000 Test runs.

That is the view of the game's most senior official, Haroon Lorgat, who was dismayed that there were so few spectators in Mohali to see Tendulkar break Brian Lara's record at a stadium that fewer than six months ago was packed for Indian Premier League Twenty20 games.

Ricky Ponting is the man most likely to inherit Tendulkar's record, but with the growing financial inducements of Twenty20 tournaments and players tiring of months on end away from their families, Tendulkar's vision - that his record could fall to "another 16-year-old who won't be having any targets" - appeared idealistic.

Lorgat, the chief executive of the International Cricket Council, insisted all national boards were committed to protecting "the primacy of Test cricket", despite a deal between the influential Board of Control for Cricket in India and Sri Lanka that could mean Sri Lankan players skip a tour of England to play in the IPL.

He expected the ICC would consider a window in the crowded schedule for the IPL as part of a revamped international program from 2012, but said all countries must ensure Test cricket remained attractive to the next generation of players and fans.

"It is a challenge, no doubt. The attraction in the short form (of the game) is very great," Lorgat said in Mohali yesterday.

"The challenge for us ... is to convert that attraction in the short form into the long form, being Test cricket. We are going to have to protect and promote the form we love so dearly." -- CHLOE SALTAU

© 2008 The Sunday Age

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