ECB chair requires ‘flexibility’ in Test schedules to keep away from future wash-outs

Richard Thompson, the ECB chair, has stated that he’ll foyer ICC chair Greg Barclay “to ensure that schedules can be more flexible” after England’s hopes of regaining the lads’s Ashes had been washed away within the Manchester rain on Sunday.

Thompson, chatting with the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, stopped in need of saying he would name for the introduction of reserve days throughout the board in Test cricket, however stated: “It’s a debate that we need to have.”

Thompson stated: “I will talk to Greg Barclay, the chair of the ICC, for sure, just in the sense of him understanding what England has done to Test cricket. We’ve elevated that format and reinvented the way Test cricket has been played now.

“There’s considerably extra pleasure and curiosity round Test cricket now, and that is a part of that broader dialog, to make sure that schedules will be extra versatile to accommodate any such unusual eventuality. But we have to have that dialog.”

Speaking ahead of the final day in Manchester, Root questioned the lack of flexibility in the hours of play in England, where the vast majority of Tests start at 11am regardless of whether overs are lost the previous day, and play rarely extends beyond 7pm.

“In England, it would not get darkish till 10pm,” Root told the BBC’s Test Match Special. “Why not begin earlier?

“Whatever it is, if you need to make overs up, instead of punishing teams for being slow on over-rates, can you find other ways of maximising play and finding chances of getting as much cricket in as possible? Why do you have to have hard and fast rules? Why not play until the overs are done?”

According to the ICC’s Test match taking part in situations, the hours of play are decided by the house board, relatively than the governing physique. “You could have a look at the schedule, in terms of the times you play,” Thompson stated.

“Fundamentally, people are buying a ticket expecting play to start at a certain time and end at a certain time, so from that perspective, you’re going to have to inject certain flexibility to broadcasters’ schedules, people with travel arrangements, all sorts of practicalities.

“We are within the leisure enterprise. You need folks to go away completely satisfied and entertained. Having a reserve day – as there was within the World Test Championship [final] – can be a terrific concept however you’d want to try this for every Test. That’s one other 5 days you’d want to search out within the schedule. There might be a variety of debate after this collection.”