Ross Taylor Proposes Interesting Idea for Next Cycle of World Test Championship
Ross Taylor (Twitter)
Ross Taylor, former captain of the New Zealand cricket team, praised the World Test Championship for bringing relevance and context to the longest format of the sport. He suggested that smaller cricketing nations should play more Test matches to ensure a fair balance in the championship.
During a virtual interaction, he said:
"In every cycle, England, India and Australia are probably going to play most Test matches. I think where we would like to get to is to get the numbers a little bit closer. Sri Lanka only played 11 or 12 and were still in the hunt. There's never going to be a perfect formula, because England and Australia have played those traditional five-Test match series for years and years now. It's not the ideal scenario, but it is the best that we have currently. I don't think it is about India, England and Australia playing less, I think it is about trying to get the other nations to up their matches,"
In the first cycle of the championship, New Zealand played 11 Tests, while finalists India played 19. Australia and England, the other two major teams, played 14 and 21 matches respectively. The same trend has continued in the ongoing cycle, with England, Australia, and India playing 22, 18, and 19 Tests respectively. Sri Lanka, who had a chance of reaching the final if they had won their last series of the cycle 2-0, only played in 12 Test matches.
According to Taylor, to address the disparity in the number of games played by different teams in the World Test Championship, smaller cricketing nations should play more three-match series.
"Hopefully at least in a cycle, play a three-match series. It might be something to look into that you have to play a 3-match series to try and make it a little bit more consistent. There's always going to be the Ashes series and different teams playing more. If we can get smaller nations playing three-match series more often than not, there's a lot of white-ball cricket being played so it is tough to fit it in but if we can have a minimum of some sort, that you have to play at least one or two three-match series against anyone. At the end of the day it is the format, and that's the thing we're working with,"
Talking about the added 'bonus' to the game of cricket and how it opens up a new dimension to score points he said:
"Quite often if you win the first match of a series or go 2-0 up, first and foremost you're just trying to win the series. But now with the added bonus of obviously getting as many points as possible and trying to get to the final, it's added a new dimension to Test cricket.
"It gives a different talking point as well. Right until that last series between Sri Lanka and New Zealand, there was still a team able to win away from home to make the final. It's been a great format for Test cricket, but like anything, there's room to improve."
