Cricket Australia is open to trialling a four-day Test

Cricket Australia is open to trialling a four-day Tests because of changing viewing habits but it’s unlikely to happen against a traditional opponent any time soon but there are other options.

Cricket Australia is open to playing a four-day Test. Picture: Getty Images

The conditioning process has begun for four-day Tests to become part of the calendar after the inaugural Test Championship concludes in 2021.

Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts has put the prospect of a change to the traditional five-day format on the agenda to take advantage of changing viewing habits.

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This year’s release of the Future Tours program, which laid out the schedule for all international teams for the next three years, limits CA’s ability to trial a four-day Test with traditional opponents before June 2021.

That’s when the inaugural Test Championship will be played, at this stage in London, between the two teams who have the most Test success from next year’s Ashes onwards.

But aware the average of duration of Tests in 2018 was a just a “touch over four days”, the idea of changing playing conditions to formalise a four-day match is beginning to crystallise in the minds of cricket’s administrators.

“There’s a bit to be said for four-day Tests. It’s certainly something we have to be open-minded to own the track,” Roberts said in Perth.

The second Test in Perth between Australia and India could finish five days. Picture: AFP

“The average duration of a Test match is just a shade over four days and certainly without jumping to conclusions that that is the right solution, it is certainly one possibility that we’ve got to be open to.

“There have been timeless Tests, even three-day Tests, so Test cricket has not been five days in duration forever. So the concept of four day Tests is something we need to be open to.”

The possibility of turning the one-off Test against Afghanistan, which Australia will host in November 2020 and isn’t part of the Test Championship, in to a four-day Test could be a consideration.

The International Cricket Council is believed to hold four-day Tests as a better option for minnow countries like Zimbabwe as well as Afghanistan and Ireland, who were granted Test status last year.

England is understood to be planning to play a four-day Test against Ireland, at Lords, before next year’s Ashes.

In the first four-day Test sanctioned by the ICC, South Africa thrashed Zimbabwe inside two days in a day-night game in December 2017.

In the match play was scheduled to last six and a half hours — 30 minutes more than in five-day Tests — with 98 overs to be bowled each day instead of 90 as it is in five dya games.

Originally published as Cricket Australia is open to trialling a four-day Test