Former Indian off-spinner, Harbhajan Singh, has delivered a sharp warning on the state of the country’s Test cricket, saying the current generation “does not have that much patience” for the five-day game and is increasingly conditioned to T20 cricket.
Speaking during a media interaction, in a video released by PTI, Harbhajan Singh linked India’s recent struggles to a wider structural problem - pitches, mindset, and the way the game is being programmed for players and fans.
“We talk of saving Test cricket, but what are we doing?”: Harbhajan
Harbhajan said India’s red-ball players are no longer accustomed to competing over the full duration of a Test match. “We are not playing well because we are not used to playing five-day Test cricket. Because they have got so much into the T20 format among the cricketers. Apart from 2-4 players, the rest do not have that much presence,” he said.
He argued that boards and curators cannot claim to save Test cricket while continuing to produce surfaces that finish inside three days and leave spectators short-changed. “We talk a lot about Test cricket. We want to save Test cricket. We love Test cricket. But what are we doing about it? If we continue to play on such tracks where the audience is going away from the stadium, and they don’t want to come and watch the game because it’s no longer interesting for anyone... we talk a lot about Test cricket, we want to save it, but what are we doing for that?
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Harbhajan Singh said smaller centres, which wait years to host a Test, suffer the most when matches barely last half the allotted time. “If we don’t play the game for five days, in a small city like Guwahati, Indore or any other small city, when Test cricket comes on, the people there are so excited that they want the match for 5 days. And if the match goes on for 2.5 days, then those 2.5 days are wasted,” he said, adding that broadcasters also lose a lot of money when games end early.
{{/usCountry}}Harbhajan Singh said smaller centres, which wait years to host a Test, suffer the most when matches barely last half the allotted time. “If we don’t play the game for five days, in a small city like Guwahati, Indore or any other small city, when Test cricket comes on, the people there are so excited that they want the match for 5 days. And if the match goes on for 2.5 days, then those 2.5 days are wasted,” he said, adding that broadcasters also lose a lot of money when games end early.
{{/usCountry}}For him, the core issue is temperament and skill shaped by conditions. “To play a 5-day Test match, you need patience, you need the game, you need the skill level. To survive 5 days, to win for 5 days, you need that kind of mindset,” Harbhajan said, urging Indian cricket to realign its priorities if it truly wants to protect the future of the longest format.