Greg Chappell feels equal distribution of revenue will help Test cricket survive

Former Australia captain and Team India coach Greg Chappell believes a better distribution of revenues and biennial World Championship will help Test cricket survive with other formats of the game. Chappell feels it’s a necessary to safeguard the future of Test cricket. The current Australian national selectors are wary of the fact that Test cricket is facing greater threats at this point.

But Chappell said with proper management of international cricket the longest format of the game can thrive alongside the other two faster versions. Equally dividing the wealth among top 10 Test playing nations in a bid to increase the number of competitive teams should be the major priority according to Chappell. Out of the 10 countries which play Test cricket, Zimbabwe is the weakest link with West Indies and Bangladesh rarely troubling the top notch teams.

“That’s what we’ve got to get to, I think because Test cricket is challenging. A lot of countries don’t have the population, or they don’t have the money or don’t have either to be able to produce a competitive Test match team,” Chappell said.

“I know how much Cricket Australia spends on all of its development programs, including domestic first-class cricket, to be able to get a competitive Test match team on the ground.

“There’s not many countries that have got the population, the funding or the will to do that. A lot of teams are struggling to be competitive at the Test level.

“Somehow we’ve got to equalise the payments around the world because what we’re seeing – take the West Indies for instance – top players electing not to play Test cricket because they’re not getting paid as much as they get to play 20-over cricket around the world.

“If we can’t balance that out a little bit then there’s going to be no incentive for people to play Test cricket.”

Chappell has long been promoting the Test match Championship proposal, an ongoing competition which will culminate every two years in a series two top nations of the cricketing world. Each Test series would be played for points and the best team will be determined on a biennial basis. This will allow the teams to start playing for points again over the next two years after the champion has been decided in the final.

“I reckon we can keep the three formats, but we’re going to have to be a lot better planned,” he said. “I think all the international boards are going to have to be prepared to give and take to some degree to be able to manage it.

“We have a 50-over World Cup every four years, we have a 20-over World Cup every two years, there’s no reason why we can’t have a Test match championship every couple of years, where every Test series that is played goes towards that championship, so there’s some meaning behind every series.

“Whilst Australia’s playing Pakistan in Australia, India’s playing England in India, we’re interested in what’s happening in India because whoever wins over there might have an impact on what we’re doing here.

“We’ve got to be clever about the way we set up the scheduling and make sure that the context of all the games is important, and people understand what’s happening.

“The 50-over game is still very popular on television, it still works really well on television. I’m sure the administrators of the game are very reluctant to lose it because it’s an important part of the business of cricket. There’s room for all of them but obviously, it’s going to have to be managed really well.”