Will seriously consider four-day Tests, says Cricket Australia chief

MELBOURNE: Australia’s cricket board will “seriously consider” playing four-day Tests, joining a global push to condense the game’s longest format.

Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts said the governing body was crunching the numbers on match durations and would look to make a decision in the “medium term”.

“I think it is something we’ve got to seriously consider. It is something that can’t be driven by emotion, i t has got t o be driven by fact,” Roberts told Australian radio station SEN on Saturday.

“We’re really looking forward to digging into the facts of that.

“(It’s) something we’ve got to look at very, very carefully and perhaps it’s more likely than not in the mid-term future.”

Tests have been played over five days through most of their 140-year history but four-day matches were given the green l i ght by t he I nt e r nati onal Cricket Council (ICC) in 2017.

South Africa played the first four-day Test since 1973 when they hosted Zimbabwe at Port Elizabeth in December 2017.

England, whose board has endorsed the reduced format, played a four-day Test against Ireland in July.

Tests are widely regarded as the pinnacle of the game but have faced competition for crowds and interest amid the ri se of Twenty20, cricket’s shortest popular format, over the past 15 years.

Roberts said Australia would look for consensus on playing four-day Tests from the other main countries that play the game.

Trying to fathom how the ICC rankings for Test teams are computed, I deep dived into the complex (in some parts also convoluted) formula employed. I must admit failure in understanding it completely, but discovered some interesting data during the search.

While it is common knowledge that Virat Kohli’s team is currently top of the pops, what astonished me was that this is the 38th consecutive month—from October 2016—that India have been No 1 in the five-day format!

This led to further search for the best-performing Test team at a stretch since the rankings began in June 2003. Australia emerged undisputed leaders, having ruled for 74 months— from the inception of the rankings till July 2009—under Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting.

As mentioned, the ranking system is complicated and sometimes throws up incredulous results. For instance, New Zealand, reduced to haplessness by Australia in the ongoing series, are currently No 2. Australia, having demolished Pakistan earlier this season, trail in at No 5!

Ahead of the Aussies are England (No 4) and South Africa, thrashed by India some months back, are No 3. It must be clarified that South Africa, England, and Australia are all tied on 102 points, with New Zealand not much ahead with 111.

But while the system is obviously not foolproof and the ICC must look to improve this if it is to be a credible measure, as former England captain Michael