‘You Go to India Now And They Won’t Watch Test Cricket. It’s All IPL’-England Legend

IPL is perhaps the biggest reason for the rising unpopularity of Test matches in India where the fans are crazy enough to watch every single game of the multi-million dollar league but not the premier domestic competition—the Ranji Trophy. Even former India all-rounder Ian Botham concurred and blamed the IPL for the Test match tickets getting unsold. However, he added that the longer version of the game has existed for more than a century and will thrive no matter what.

“You go to India now and they won’t watch Test cricket. It’s all IPL. They earn big money and it sounds great now, but how long do they think this is going to last? Test cricket has been around for 100 years plus, it’s not going to go anywhere.”

“And if we do lose Test cricket, then we’ll lose cricket as we know it. It will become meaningless. To play a Test match is what every player should want to do.”

His statements come in the wake of 21-year-old English batter Will Smeed who had opted for white ball exclusive contract with his county team Somerset.

Smeed will now join a growing list of cricketers who have forsaken Test matches in order to lengthen their careers in formats which offer lucrative deals.

Australia’ Dan Christian, who was known as the most successful T20 cricketers of all time, opted out of Test matches a long ago.

Moreover, he also lauded Steve Smith who is all set to play county ahead of the all-important Ashes.

“To think that Australia go to India, they play four Tests over there with no warm-up game.”

“They’ll play on totally different wickets to what they will in England, and the only player so far who realises that and has said ‘I’m going to play for Sussex’, is Steve Smith. Why’s he their best player? The simple reason he thinks ahead.”

Smith will be available for Sussex for four County Championship games ahead of Australia’s bid to defend the urn. The Ashes will begin on June 16, 2023, at Edgbaston in Birmingham.

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