Test matches should not be tinkered with, says Mahela Jayawardene

Earlier, cricket great Sachin Tendulkar had vehemently opposed the proposed four-day Test, urging the governing body to refrain from changing the format.

Mark Taylor, Michael Vaughan and Shane Warne are among former players who have supported the idea of four-day Tests.

ICC Cricket Committee member Mahela Jayawardene on Wednesday said Test cricket should remain a five-day affair even as the game's apex body meets in Dubai in March (27-31) to ponder over the possibility of four-day Test matches being the future of international red-ball cricket.

“We will discuss it in the meeting (in March), and I don’t know what will happen after that but my personal opinion is that it should remain five days. I would not want any change,” said Jayawardene, a former Sri Lanka captain.

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Earlier, cricket great Sachin Tendulkar had vehemently opposed the proposed “four-day Test”, urging the governing body to refrain from “tinkering” with a format in which the spinners come into play on the final day. Tendulkar's comments came close on the heels of India captain Virat Kohli stating that "day-night cricket is the most that needs to be changed about Test cricket."

"Four-day Tests? Look, I'm not a fan of [it]," Kohli had said on the eve of the T20I series opener between India and Sri Lanka in Guwahati. "I think the intent will not be right then because then you will speak of three-day Tests, where do you end? Then you speak of Test cricket disappearing. I don't endorse that at all.

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Meanwhile, Mark Taylor, Michael Vaughan and Shane Warne are among former players who have supported the shake up. The ICC approved a trial of the concept in 2017, with South Africa, Zimbabwe, England and Ireland taking part in four-day games since then.