• Notes low profits accrued by Tests a stumbling block
• Wants long format marketed outside top 3
• Says FTP has put a spoke in WTC wheel

Former Sri Lanka Captain Kumar Sangakkara has called for a balanced international cricket calendar that gives Sri Lanka and other countries greater opportunities to play red-ball cricket, while acknowledging that the financial realities of the format remain a stumbling block to be overcome by administrators.

Sangakkara, 48, said that concerns over the future of Test cricket beyond Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) had been repeatedly broached at International Cricket Council (ICC) fora and within the wider global cricket community.

“It’s a question that has been troubling all of world cricket for some time, not just SLC,” Sangakkara told reporters, addressing the SLC Transformation Committee’s monthly media briefing on Monday (31 August) for the first time since its formation . 

He stated that while the World Test Championship (WTC) was mooted to give greater meaning to the format, the current Future Tours Programme (FTP) had put a spoke in its wheel, as it did not ensure that countries played an equal or minimum number of Test matches.

The legendary former wicketkeeper-batter, who represented his country from 2000 to 2015, said that there had previously been a dialogue about establishing a minimum of three Tests per series instead of two, but was quick to observe that some now played only two-match series for the most part.

“The bottom line is, in the current context of world cricket, except for the top three or four countries, the revenue generated by Test cricket is very low,” he said.

He sounded a warning stating that staging Test cricket could even become financially unviable for some boards for the foreseeable future, pointing to countries such as Afghanistan and Ireland, which played only a limited number of matches annually despite possessing Test status.

Sangakkara, who amassed a total of 28,016 runs across the three formats during his celebrated cricketing career, also raised concerns about the ability of Test players to build long careers if they received too few chances and did not play other formats.

He said that cricket administrators must examine how revenue from other formats could help sustain Test cricket, while also improving the way the long format was marketed in the region.

The iconic ex-southpaw, currently domiciled in the UK, stressed the importance of promoting Test series well in advance and building the profiles of leading Test cricketers, arguing that Test players should be feted as much as those plying their trade in white-ball cricket.

Sangakkara also highlighted the ad hoc scheduling of the global calendar, noting that England and Australia maintained their traditional touring cycles, while India toured other countries more often due to the significant commercial value generated by those series.

He said that tours by commercially powerful teams could be critical to the financial sustainability of cricket boards.

While admitting that there was no swift resolution to the thorny issue, Sangakkara stated that urgent action was needed at national, regional, and international levels in order to ensure countries received sufficient quotas of Test cricket.

He said that Sri Lanka could seek to influence upcoming FTP arrangements and negotiate with other cricket boards for more Test matches moving forward, adding that Sri Lanka must remain a strong Test side if it sought to succeed across the short formats as well. 

(JK)