Four-day Tests? West Indies coach Andre Coley’s plea to save Test cricket

The Wests Indies have been forced to pick a squad with seven uncapped players for their tour of Australia but their coach has a solution to Test cricket’s global decline.

West Indies coach Andre Coley has called on cricket’s leadership to put up or shut up when it comes to saving the Test format globally, while floating the idea of four-day Tests in a bid to make the format more appetising to players.

The Windies have been widely written off for the Frank Worrell Trophy series, which begins in Adelaide on Wednesday.

Having not beaten Australia in a Test series in more than three decades, and not even won a single Test against the Aussies in more than 20 years, the Windies have picked a squad with seven uncapped players as former captain Jason Holder and all-rounder Kyle Mayers opted out of the series, prioritising franchise commitments elsewhere.

Such is life for the former Test powerhouse, with the region still capable of producing world-class cricketers but not capable of paying them enough to always choose Test cricket.

It is not a new phenomenon for the Windies, but they may merely have been the canary in the coalmine for the format given South Africa has named a massively depleted squad to tour New Zealand later this month after its board told Proteas stars to put the Indian-backed SA20 competition first.

Australian cricket leaders have discussed the idea of setting up a global funding pool to ensure Test cricket remains viable for more than just a handful of nations.

West Indies’ Kemar Roach will play this tour but how long can he resist T20 riches? Picture: AFP.

Australian Cricketers’ Association chief Todd Greenberg said last month that he feared only India, England and Australia may still be playing the format in a decade.

Coley, appointed Windies Test coach last year, said talk was one thing, but actions were another.

“I believe that if we have enough powerbrokers around world cricket who are keen on ensuring that Test cricket continues to be played and becomes a viable option for players, young players, then those people, those persons have to actually voice those opinions in the lobbies and rooms that can make those decisions, and decisions are made accordingly,” Coley told this masthead.

“If we really want to keep Test cricket is all well and good ... but it really comes down to the people who actually make the decisions around who can influence decisions, if they really believe that Test cricket needs to continue then find a way to get it done.”

Coley, a first-class player for Jamaica in the late 1990s who played in cricket’s first Commonwealth Games appearance in 1998, said he believed the skills needed in Test cricket still translated well to the shorter formats.

“The longevity of Test cricket is a global concern. To find time to play more than two or three Test matches in a series is becoming increasingly difficult with the increase in the number of franchise tournaments that are being played around the world.

Pat Cummins’ Australians are one of the only teams for which Test cricket is financially viable. Picture: Mark Evans/Getty Images

“We have to accept the reality of where we are in the scheme of things, you know the different formats and which one has actually been gaining more popularity and so on. So our plan is really to work as best as possible to have the best team available to play international cricket.

“I mean, we still believe that playing red-ball cricket is the way to go if you want to actually learn the game and extend your time in playing because if you look at it the majority of the best white-ball players are established or were established red-ball players.

“There’s a lot to be said around having a grounding in that game in that format. And it’s still alive. Even though the windows it is played is shrinking. But we’re really focusing on the windows that we are presented are available to us and then we give the best possible account of ourselves so that we can actually keep it viable.”

He pondered whether shortening Tests from five to four days could help make the format more commercially viable. There are a handful of four-day Tests played outside the men’s World Test Championship and in women’s cricket.

“You may have to consider potentially Test matches making them four days. Because you look at the pace of Test matches, the majority of matches are finished in four days.

“So it may be to create more time to make it more relevant maybe potentially instead of five days, maybe four days. Which is closer in line with first-class cricket and the pace of play and so on. Which then makes it even more attractive for white-ball players.”

Originally published as Four-day Tests? West Indies coach Andre Coley’s plea to save Test cricket