With Ben Stokes' ODI retirement adding to the pile of complaints from players over the congested cricket calendar, fans and experts have been left wondering as to how the growing issue can be resolved. Speaking on Sky Sports, former India head coach Ravi Shastri suggested a big and bold change to Test cricket, which according to him could help with increasing red-ball cricket’s popularity and also with ODIs, T20Is. "If you want Test cricket to survive you cannot have 10, 12 teams playing. Keep the top six, keep the quality of cricket going and respect quality over quantity. That's the only way you open up a window for other cricket to be played", he said.
"Expand teams in T20 or one-day cricket if you want to spread the game, but in Test cricket, you will have to reduce the teams, then it does not matter if England does not go to West Indies or if West Indies does not come to England."
Shastri explained that only top-six teams should play Test cricket and sides needed to qualify for it. "If they are in the top-six, they play and if they are not in the top six, they do not play. Whether it is India, Australia, or England, you have to qualify for that top-six, if you want to be around playing Test matches. If you want to spread the game, do it with the white ball, ideally T20 cricket. Bottom line, it is the football model, you are going to have the World Cup, one big one and the rest of it would be different leagues around the world", he stated.
Stating that countries with no Test cricket experience won't be able to entertain crowds, Shastri said, "What is Test cricket? It tests you, you need quality. So if there is no quality then who is going to watch it? You are going to have two-day or three-day games, if you get countries who have never played Test cricket, and you say come to England or India in bowler-friendly conditions, either turners or seaming conditions, the game is over in two-and-a-half-days."
{{/usCountry}}Stating that countries with no Test cricket experience won't be able to entertain crowds, Shastri said, "What is Test cricket? It tests you, you need quality. So if there is no quality then who is going to watch it? You are going to have two-day or three-day games, if you get countries who have never played Test cricket, and you say come to England or India in bowler-friendly conditions, either turners or seaming conditions, the game is over in two-and-a-half-days."
{{/usCountry}}"You have taken money from the broadcasters for five days, they are going to be unhappy and the fans are going to be unhappy", he further added.