Ramnaresh Sarwan feels that Test cricket is at its lowest ebb in West Indies at the moment and pointed out the emergence of T20 cricket as a major reason behind the declining state of the format in the Caribbean region.
Sarwan played 87 Tests, 181 ODIs and 18 T20Is for West Indies between 2000 and 2011 and is one of the most prolific batters to have represented the team.
“Yeah well Test cricket is at a very low point to be honest, Sarwan told news agency PTI. “Among the games that we are playing again in the Caribbean, I don’t think it’s sufficient to develop our players but I also think there is this major threat of T20 cricket where a lot of people are showing interest in the shortest format.”
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Sarwan, who scored a combined 11944 runs across formats, also pointed out lack of facilities in the region for the poor state of affairs. “I think one of the biggest challenges we’ve had is facilities in the region. I think the cricket board has been working on it. So we’ll see what happens,” he said.
The 44-year-old predicts a future where Caribbean cricketers will start migrating to USA where there’s been a major push to promote the game in the recent years.
Besides co-hosting the 2024 T20 World Cup, USA also has its own franchise-based T20 tournament which was launched last year. Additionally, cricket has been included in the programme for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“I think having T20 format in the US which is so close to the Caribbean with so many players of course they would have the opportunity now to participate in the short format of the game in the US,” Sarwan said.
“So you might find a lot of people jumping ship in terms of coming to the US and start participating in T20 and of course try and see if they could find a way in terms of becoming legal in the US and then start hopefully pushing the play in the US,” he added.
Sarwan feels that the International Cricket Council (ICC) has to find a solution and suggested limiting the number of T20 tournaments which he doesn’t see happening in the near future.
“I don’t think it’s something that can be done only in the Caribbean. I think the ICC probably would have to intervene to put a limit in terms of how many T20 tournaments are being played around the world,” he said.
“Of course you want to have the best players available for all those leagues and of course you also want to be able to represent the countries. So I think it’s a major challenge in terms of saying what is the ideal scenario. At some point in time, the ICC probably would have to intervene which I really don’t see happening in the near future,” he added.
Sarwan doesn’t feel that the pride to play for West Indies has diminished.
“I don’t want to say it’s diminished. But probably because of the shorter format of the game, it has taken a lot of players’ attention. So, they probably would have worked more in the shorter format rather than the longer format,” he said.
“We all know what Test cricket requires. We just don’t call it Test cricket because of the term test cricket, right? It’s been over five days and of course the test is usual in every aspect you could possibly think of. That is one of the reasons, like I said, the guys have probably lost their focus on the longer format,” he added.
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