Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith especially praised the Indian cricket team for “taking Test cricket seriously” under its star batsman. Virat Kohli. He also believes that the longest format of the game could be reduced to five or six countries in the future. The 2023-27 Future Tour Program was announced by the International Cricket Council earlier this week, according to which England (43), Australia (40) and India (38) will play the most Tests, but South Africa will get only 28. . Whereas Pakistan will also get only 27 Tests to play.
On this day in 2021 – Captain Virat Kohli uttered perhaps the most iconic line in Test cricket in his Huddle speech on the Ground “For 60 overs they must feel hell out there” and India beat England at the Lord’s Test and won an iconic Test in Milan. pic.twitter.com/7GliNIbfDo— cricketman2 (@ImTanujSingh) 16 August 2022
Smith said, “With Test cricket, it’s just the iconic nations or the big cricketing nations that are contributing at the moment. I think it’s wonderful that, especially under Virat Kohli, India has really played Test cricket. seriously. They go ahead with that,” Smith told Sky Sports. “But as long as we have competitive teams, you won’t have 10, 11, 12, 13 or 14 competing teams. You can be limited to just five or six countries that play Test cricket at this level,” he said. Huh.” ,
South Africa are currently on top of the ICC World Test Championship 2021-23 and the veteran batsman believes that his team is eager to move ahead in the five-day format. The 41-year-old is also the commissioner of South Africa’s new franchise T20 league and he says it will help the country develop its cricket in all formats. The league starts in January next year and South Africa’s top players will be available after pulling out of the then-scheduled ODI series against Australia, keeping the league as their priority.
“I felt it was important for South Africa to run its own professional league, as it is in the rest of the world. For four weeks of the whole year, the priority would be the league. I fear that if we had not done this South Africa would have Maybe eight to 10 players could have been lost in this UAE T20 league, so there has to be an element of investment to keep our players.”
“There is also an opportunity for our players to interact with top players and coaches in a truly professional cricket environment. Hopefully this will increase the talent pool. The key is that the money will come back into the game. I think South Africa cricket is in dire need.
He added that the pressure on countries like South Africa, New Zealand and West Indies to be in a financially stable position to face the big teams like England, India and Australia and keep the game competitive is immense.
He said, “I don’t think world cricket can afford to end South Africa or one of the top nations. This league helps with that and hopefully it will flow into Test cricket standards, international white ball standards. “