Clive Lloyd fears for the future of Test cricket. He thinks T20 cricket won’t allow a youngster to develop as a cricketer.
“Well, I’ve said time and again that T20 is an exhibition and Test cricket is an examination. And I think that our youngsters seem to be getting this habit of trying to hit the ball out of the ground so that they can get a contract somewhere. And I don’t like that.
“I would like to see we go back to a situation where you go on tour and blood youngsters. You can’t do that now. If you go to England, you play two games, Test matches, one-dayers, and then you’re gone... They don’t learn anything about the country, and they don’t learn anything about playing cricket in England or Australia or India for that matter,” the West Indies legend said on Thursday, on the sidelines of a function organised by Adamas University.
“We surely have to play more (tour) games so that people can get acclimatised and so on. We now have to have a look at the situation and assess how we can improve it.”
Lloyd was felicitated with a lifetime achievement award by the university.
He feels Test cricket’s importance cannot be undermined in the face of the mushrooming T20 leagues across the globe.
“It’s quite exciting, but I don’t want Test cricket to lose out because of that. It’s obvious that it has given the players a much better living, but Test cricket is still important as far as I’m concerned, and I hope that we can see a lot more of it,” Lloyd said.
The former ICC match referee came down heavily on the world body because of the financial clout enjoyed by the Big Three — India, Australia and England boards.
The BCCI now earns $230 million annually, the England and Wales Cricket Board $41 million and Cricket Australia $37.53 million from the ICC’s annual revenue of $600 million approximately.
“To me, if you’re now up there with the rest, everybody should get the same thing. Look at the Premier League. Does Manchester United get more than Liverpool? Does Arsenal get more than Chelsea? No. They get the same.
“Don’t forget, in the West Indies, we have 14 islands while the other countries
are just one country. And it takes us a lot of money to hold our tournaments because we’ve got to fly everywhere,” Lloyd said.
“So to me, everybody should get the same. But if you’re at the top, you get a little bit more for being there... You can’t give three countries a great set of money and ignore the rest. It is not fair at all.”
Lloyd gave a clean chit to the Cape Town pitch used in the recent series against India. “I don’t think anything was wrong with the pitch. Somebody made a hundred on that same pitch, so I think it’s just application.”