London: Former England Test batter Mark Butcher has remarked that the introduction of the World Test Championship has done more harm to the longest format of the game instead of benefiting it over the course of the time.
The introduction around the popularity of Test cricket has caught fire recently after South Africa named a second-string squad for their Test series against New Zealand. The reason behind this was the scheduling of the SA20 where countries' top cricketers will participate in the tournament. There was a talk regarding reducing significance of the Test cricket a few years back and International Cricket Council (ICC) introduced World Test Championship after that.
However, former England cricketer Mark Butcher has opined that World Test Championship has reduced the important of red-ball cricket instead of boosting it.
"The point is that your bilateral series have to capture the imagination of the fans and the players of the two countries that are playing in it, and then the wider cricket-watching public. And the only way they are that is if they are competitive. And that's how it always was. The only effort that's been made to kind of try and keep it relevant, I think, has made it worse. If you ask me. It's been a slow-moving car crash up to now and now it's kind of like, bang – impact has been made," he told on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast.
Butcher also added that the reason behind Test cricket losing its charm is the failure of the teams not being able to keep hold their best players due to the lucrative league cricket offers are available.
"The places where it might actually have made a difference, i.e., leveling up revenues for TV rights, allowing countries to be able to keep hold of their best players," he added.
"Allowing them to be able to pay a universal standard of money for Test match appearances and whatever and then allow the richer boards to pay their players whatever they want to on top of that – I have no issue with any of that stuff," concluded.
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