West Indies superstar Andre Russell says he fears the new T10 format of the game could threaten T20 cricket and, eventually, Test cricket.
“To be honest, T10 cricket can be a threat because you can watch three games in a day, it’s less stress on the body and bowlers just come and bowl two overs,” he told reporters in Australia on Wednesday ahead of the first of four games he will play for the Melbourne Renegades in the ongoing Big Bash League.
“T20 is always going to be ultimate but I just think the amount of cricket at the moment means the players’ availability is going to be a big issue,” he added.
The 2022 edition of the Abu Dhabi T10 league concluded last week, and the competition saw a host of marquee names including Russell, Nicholas Pooran, Eoin Morgan and Adil Rashid taking part.
The number of T10 leagues is steadily increasing, and earlier this year, Cricket West Indies (CWI) became the first full-member board to start its own league, called the 6ixty. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) have already announced that next year, they will be starting their own T10 league known as the ‘Lanka T10 League.
“Most players, it’s going to make them want to leave the longer format with the direction T10 leagues are going.
“There are a lot of different T10 leagues in different parts of the world and they announced that just before the finals in Abu Dhabi.”
Russell himself has not played a single red-ball game since 2014 but the veteran is hoping that all players don’t fall into the short-format trap.
“I just hope that players still believe in red-ball cricket, still believe in Test cricket and still want to play those formats because the older generation, they will come out and watch five days of cricket. That’s where it all started.” (Sportsmax)
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