Talkshop to address cannibal nature of T20

LONDON: The England and Wales Cricket Board will soon conduct a talkshop to address the "cannibal" nature of Twenty20 cricket which is threatening to consume global growth of the Test format.
ECB Chairman Giles Clarke has called for ideas while Hampshire Chairman Rod Bransgrove will deliver a paper in which he calls for scrapping of international Twenty20 cricket and implementation of a Test championship to generate more interest and reduce one-sided matches.
"T20 is a light-hearted 'gimmicky' product designed to cater for the modern 'quick-fix' culture," Bransgrove said.
"It is an opportunity for domestic competitions to re-enfranchise themselves (as per IPL) and should not be usurped by the international game; it will cheapen international fixtures, cannibalise other international formats and render domestic T20 competitions uncompetitive by the removal of star players," he was quoted as saying by the 'Daily Telegraph'.
While the recent India-Australia Test series was played out in front of swathes of empty seats, the Twenty20 Indian Premier League attracted massive crowds last year.
Indian great Sachin Tendulkar also recently took note of the waning interest in Test cricket around the world with and urged the authorities to throw open the a couple of stands free for students on weekends.
Newly appointed skipper Andrew Strauss with be one of the panelist while other guest speakers at the summit in Leicestershire includes former England captains Michael Vaughan, Nasser Hussain and Mike Atherton as well as national selector Geoff Miller.