CHENNAI: Even though formal discussions on introducing four-day Tests will take place only at ICC’s quarterly meeting in March, opposition to the idea continues to grow. A day after Cricket South Africa pledged support, Federation of International Cricketers Association (FICA) said ICC and member boards need to give “compelling reasons for change.”
On Sunday, this daily had reported that FICA was yet to decide on the proposal and chief executive Tony Irish had said ICC need to ask players before arriving at any decision. Since then, there have been voices in favour of further discussions, while some others including the likes of Sachin Tendulkar have vehemently opposed it.
On Wednesday, Mahela Jayawardene, part of ICC’s Cricket Committee that will discuss this proposal, said he too isn’t favour of the change. “We will discuss it in the meeting (in March). I don’t know what will happen after that but my opinion is that it should remain five days. I would not want any change,” a news agency quoted him as saying.
Hours later came a detailed response from FICA, with Irish stating that the only way they will change their stance is if the ICC includes them in the discussions and gives convincing reasons as to whether reducing a Test match to four days provides anything significant other than just freeing up the dates.
“After discussions with players around the world and our global survey data, it is clear that there is a lot of negative sentiment within the global collective of players towards such a significant change to the game’s most traditional format,” Irish said in a statement. It can be noted that Indian players are not part of FICA.
FICA has also called on ICC to reveal the economic and scheduling benefits of the proposal, so that it can discuss it at length with the players. “Given the obvious implications, if ICC and/or Boards do want to make a broader case for 4-day Tests, we would need to clearly understand what the economic and scheduling benefits would be, so we can discuss that with players and gauge genuine collective feedback,” he said.
FICA’s fears are not new. As Irish mentioned earlier, they want ICC to bring more structured cricket in the next Future Tours Programme between 2023-2031 – a period in which they are planning to introduce the four-day Tests. A FICA survey couple of years ago had revealed that players are not interested in meaningless bilateral series. There seems to be no change in it as they have sought more clarity.
“It is important for us and the players to understand how any additional calendar space in the playing schedule would be used. Making a change simply to provide calendar space to fill it with additional or meaningless cricket is not something we can support. Cricket’s global structure desperately needs clarity, rather than further confusion.”
Although it is not clear whether ICC will include FICA in these discussions, the players’ body has warned of resistance if the plan is imposed on them. “Until such a time as we and players are provided with the full picture and compelling reasons, we remain supportive of 5-day Tests, and would expect significant player resistance if a shift to that is imposed on players by ICC and/or Boards. Test is a cherished format of the game and it needs player support and buy in to survive. We urge those making decisions to understand that.”