Tests matches are cricket’s ‘life source’ – Dravid

Rahul Dravid has made a spirited call for nurturing first-class and Test cricket, saying the longer and more traditional formats provide players with the grounding needed to prosper in the newer, shorter versions. The steps Dravid suggested for bolstering Tests included a more serious consideration of day-night Tests, increasing pay for long-form specialists, a streamlined and regularised cricket calendar, and providing more context to matches through competitions like the Test championship.

Perhaps the most radical idea Dravid proposed was for the less successful countries to find a way to involve some of their teams in the first-class structures of more robust cricketing nations, such as a Bangladesh side participating in the Indian domestic season.

Dravid was speaking at the ESPNcricinfo for Cricket event held in London on Monday, part of a series of events held to celebrate the website’s 20th anniversary.

While highlighting the primacy of Tests, he acknowledged the benefits provided by Twenty20s, not just financially but with the innovations in cricket it has spurred. Dravid urged people to think beyond pat metaphors like “fast food v fine dining” when comparing the two formats, and, putting forth a more nuanced explanation of the difference between them, said he believed they could exist alongside each other….

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