Lalit Modi’s thoughts on Test cricket

People won’t watch Test cricket unless there are day-night matches

Time zones, Lalit. Time zones.

At least half the matches your team plays aren’t in your country. If it’s all about broadcasting rights then one nation’s day-night match is the opposition’s daytime match.

We’ve got to admit that day-night Test matches make sense in a lot of countries though. Not all of them, but a few. Not in England because people are actually looking for an excuse to get out into the sun because warm days are such a rarity over here.

People don’t have the time for Test cricket

This is one of Modi’s beliefs. This is one of the main reasons why he thinks Twenty20 will ultimately be the dominant format (but not the sole format, it’s worth noting).

Lalit Modi works an 80-hour week or summat like that. He’s never even managed to watch a whole IPL game – only fragments. This is his world. He doesn’t realise that most of the rest of us are lucky if we put in eight hours of actual work in an entire working week.

A Test match, played during the daytime, is the best way of avoiding work that there is. That is the modern world, Lalit; a world that revolves around the internet and finding ways to slack off.

Test cricket’s survival depends on the way it’s marketed

It doesn’t. Test cricket’s success depends on the way it’s marketed, but Test cricket offers something unique that sporting followers can’t get anywhere else, so it shouldn’t die unless it is utterly neglected.

Even if Twenty20 were to become as popular as football, we’d imagine that many of the fans would start to appreciate elements of Test cricket over time.

We’re still with Test cricket because it’s got more depth; because it offers more to think about and more to talk about. It’s not marketing that’s kept us watching the sport for 20 years.