Senior cricketers in each country need to promote Tests: Waugh

Former Australia skipper Steve Waugh feels the lure of Twenty20 cricket is affecting the longest format of the game and has put the onus on senior cricketers across the globe to promote Test cricket.

“We have to hope senior cricketers in each country keep promoting Test cricket,” Waugh was quoted on Tuesday.

“Australian players still always talk about the Baggy Green cap and playing for their country and the responsibility rests with senior players in every country (to do the same.)” Citing the decline of West Indies in Test cricket to put across his point, Waugh said budding Caribbean cricketers who grow up watching the likes of Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo endorsing T20 will take to T20 cricket more than Tests. “There is a danger there because obviously the Windies are fantastic at T20 and young kids see that. They see they can make a lot of money,” he said.

“The West Indies got into a bit of trouble when Chris Gayle, who was a great Test player, said his priority was T20, then other senior players say the same thing, young kids hear it and all of a sudden the focus is on T20.”

The West Indies are current World T20 champions but in Tests they are struggling to match top quality sides. They recently lost the opening Test against India by an innings and 92 runs at Antigua.