Growth of T20 leagues worrying for Test cricket, say Nasser Hussain, David Lloyd

Former England cricketers Nasser Hussain and David Lloyd are concerned by the growth of T20 leagues across the world and the trickle-down effect on Test cricket

Former England skipper Nasser Hussain and coach David Lloyd have said mushrooming of T20 leagues across the world is a prime reason for several cricketers turning their back on Test cricket.

Nasser Hussain (L) and David Lloyd have admitted that T20 cricket leagues have started to lure young cricketers from Test cricket. (Getty Images)

England internationals Alex Hales and Adil Rashid are the latest entrants in the growing list. The former cricketers feel it’s simple logic these cricketers follow while opting for the format. As against a five-day Test, a T20 game lasts only for a few hours and also doesn’t drain one to the extent the longest format of the game does.

Also, there are several options for these cricketers with the Indian Premier League (April-May), Big Bash League (December-January), Pakistan Super League (February-March), Natwest T20 Blast (July-September), Caribbean Premier League (August-September), Shpageeza Cricket League (September), Bangladesh Premier League (November-December) and the Super Smash T20 (December-January) offering cricketers a range of leagues to choose from.

South Africa is set to launch a franchise T20 League in November while Afghanistan’s Premier League is slated to begin in October..

That would leave only June without a country hosting a T20 league. “The lads are just doing the maths. They are the same as anyone else,” Mail Online quoted Nasser Hussain as saying. “We could talk about how important county cricket was for us — Bumble played all his career at Lancashire and I spent all mine at Essex — but that’s old school. T20 is less work, more money, more people watching and probably more fun. What would you do?”

David Lloyd said, “It’s the changing face of cricket. There are so many Twenty20 competitions globally that players are maximising their earnings. If you can be paid twice as much for half the amount of work there are not many who are going to turn it down. I expect a lot more players to do it,” he went on to add.

On being asked if this was a threat to Test cricket, Lloyd and Hussain said cricketing boards should create a platform by which the five-day format is marketed in an attractive manner. Speaking on the tectonic shift over the past decade, Hussain said, “Three or four years ago the T20 leagues were a retirement option for players like Kevin Pietersen and Brendon McCullum. Then they started to attract younger players like AB de Villiers, but now it’s people in their prime like Hales and Rashid. That is a concern and it will become very worrying if, say, that 18-year-old says it is all he is going to play.”