Australia great Steve Waugh sends Test cricket plea ahead of World Championship final
Former Baggy Green skipper calls on leading cricket figures to bang drum for sacred longer format
Ahead of the World Test Championship final this week, Australian great Steve Waugh said the five-day format remained “the pinnacle of the game”.
Australia and South Africa will fight for global honours in the Lord’s showpiece from Wednesday, as Test cricket emerges from its four-month hibernation following the conclusion of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Last year, Waugh said he feared the imminent “death of Test cricket”, after South Africa sent a second-string team to play two Tests in New Zealand because of a clash with a domestic T20 competition.
After watching “some of the most amazing matches in history over the past 12 months”, however, Waugh said the game was back in a “pretty good place”.
He acknowledged franchise cricket was a huge pull for players who could “earn 10 times the money” they would in the Test arena, “to play under less pressure, and spend less time away from home”.
And for that reason, Waugh, who scored 10,927 runs in 168 Tests, at an average of 51.06, said players, administrators, leaders and captains “have an obligation to tell people how great Test cricket is … we need to keep promoting it.