The World Test Championship (WTC), according to former England cricketer Mark Butcher, has worsened the situation for Test cricket’s promotion. The World Test Championship is “a slow-moving car crash,” according to Mark Butcher.
Much discussion has focused on how home clubs modify their pitches to their advantage to earn valuable World Series points and advance to the championship game after each two-year cycle.
World Test Championship is ‘a slow-moving car crash’
Mark Butcher, however, believes that it has merely made Tests more biased and less competitive, which causes viewers to lose interest in the format — something that the ICC may have intended when they instituted the WTC.
“The idea is that your bilateral series have to captivate the interest of the supporters and players of the two participating countries, and then the broader cricket-watching public,” he told Wisden.
And the one aspect that causes them that way is their competitive nature. And that’s how things have always been.
“I believe that the little attempt to somehow maintain its relevance has really made matters worse. In my opinion. Up until now, automobile collisions have been happening slowly, but suddenly there has been an impact.”
Mark Butcher thinks that certain boards’ inability to retain their finest players is a major contributing factor to the absence of competition across teams in the Test format.
Players leave the Test format due to the lucrative T20 contracts, which inevitably weaken the national sides.
According to Butcher, the ICC might have endeavored to ensure that all boards received equal money from TV rights. Any other means that would enable them to secure contracts that adequately secure their financial futures for their greatest players.
Five Test matches between England and India are scheduled, and the pitches should be as good as the ones the tourists saw in Ahmedabad on their last tour.
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