"It's Fading Out...": India legend warns the ICC of test cricket's bleak future

There appears to be a likely dramatic change in how cricket tournaments will be held in the future as T20 leagues spread around the globe. Now that the UAE and South Africa are also launching their own Twenty20 cricket leagues, there are now even more competitions like the Indian Premier League, Pakistan Super League, and Big Bash League. Because there are so many franchise leagues throughout the world, the majority of which have attracted significant commercial interest, some analysts have projected that cricket may follow football’s lead and adopt the practice of having players compete in club contests for the majority of the year.

Kapil Dev, the captain of the 1983 World Cup-winning India team, believes that the money made by franchise T20 leagues should be used to preserve Test cricket.

World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev said the ICC should look to preserve ODI and Test cricket as well, and not just franchise leagues#ICC #KapilDevhttps://t.co/jz00Q1XJH6

— CricketNDTV (@CricketNDTV) August 18, 2022

“I think it’s fading out,” Dev told the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Monday in Sydney, where he was guest of honour at the India Australia Strategic Alliance dinner celebrating 76 years of Indian Independence.

“The ICC has a bigger responsibility how to manage this game. It’s going the way as football in Europe. They don’t play against each country. It is once in four years (during the World Cup). Is this what we’re going to have, the World Cup and the rest of the time playing club cricket?”

Kapil Dev said

Dev continued by saying that it is the ICC’s duty to ‘to ensure the survival’ of Tests and ODIs.

“In a similar way, will cricketers eventually be playing mainly the IPL or the Big Bash or something like that? So the ICC have to put more time into that to see how they can ensure the survival of one-day cricket, Test match cricket, not only club cricket,”

he said.

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“Club cricket is OK for a while. The Big Bash is OK. But the South African league is coming, the UAE league is coming. If all the countries are going to play the club cricket, then international cricket will be only for the World Cup.”

he concluded