World record holder and West Indies batting legend Brian Lara believes banishing the no result ending to test matches could be the fillip the longer version of cricket needs.
With the dawn of the faster-paced T20 format of the game, interest in test cricket has been on a downward spiral in recent years, with many of the sports top players opting out of test cricket.
Lara, now 47, has played 131 Tests and is test cricket’s sixth highest run-scorer with 11,953 and holds the record for highest score in a match with 400. He previously held the world record of 375 not out.
He is of the firm belief that with a little tweaking Test cricket could regain its place at the pinnacle of the sport.
“I played in a period when Test cricket was waning and the crowds were a bit smaller and I grew up in the 70s and 80s and lined up at five o’clock in the morning to watch a Test match with a packed house,” Lara told BBC.
“T20 has brought a new spectator in.”
“One of the complaints by an American is ‘how can you play a game for five days and it ends in a draw?’ I would like to maybe see results in every single Test match,” he added.
“I know seventy per cent of the time the game takes its natural course and you get a result.
“Maybe find a way where you structure the game … and come up with some formula that can bring a winner at the end of it.”
