Abu Dhabi: Giles Clarke, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is keen to see the ICC World Test championship take off at least in the year 2017.
Speaking to Gulf News in an exclusive interview during the Second Test between England and Pakistan at the Zayed International Cricket Stadium, Clarke said the Test Championship was important for Test cricket.
“I am not a great believer in seeing a lot of changes in Test cricket. I think the world Test Championship which is being positioned for 2017, that is going to be very important for Test cricket. We will take it further forward. I think there is a lot of value in that,” Clarke said.
Pink ball research
Commenting on playing Test cricket under lights with the pink ball, a move that was experimented by MCC in a four-day game here in Abu Dhabi last year, Clarke said several researches were on in this direction.
There is a growing belief that day-night Test matches could be the way to boost attendances in countries around the world who have struggled to fill their grounds in recent years. “Very valuable research is being done on how Tests could be played under lights,” Clarke said.
“The most important thing is that players can perform in the same exceptional levels that they do in day light. And when we have established that we obviously hope that the spectator will find it as a very good experience. It’s an important combination and how you achieve these things is important,” Clarke said.
Abu Dhabi played hosts to the traditional curtain-raiser to the English cricket season and the four-day fixture used pink balls for that fixture between the MCC and county champions Durham in 2010.
'Very valuable'
Last year, former Indian skipper Rahul Dravid was be part of the MCC team that played Nottinghamshire, the English County champions, in the four-day curtain-raiser for the English domestic season at the Zayed Cricket Stadium here under lights.
Commenting on the experiment of pink balls under lights, Clarke said, “It was a very valuable game which was played here. A lot was learnt from it.”
“There are issues about the dew. So we will have to see what transpires but I know of several researches we have had in County games,” he added.
Clarke said playing here in the region would help the English team. “I think for us this is an outstanding challenge to demonstrate our abilities on sub continental conditions against a sub continental side.”
“After this we are going to Sri Lanka which would be extremely challenging. Then of course we have India, at the end of this year. That will be a very major challenge indeed. We are looking forward to that challenge. I think the team will certainly be well prepared,” he said before his team crumbled against the Pakistan spinners.
