Srinagar: England Test team skipper Ben Stokes has termed Test Cricket as Purest form of the game and said that T20 Cricket is becoming business.
Ben Stokes who is one of the finest all-rounders of the current era recently started a debate after quoting 50-over format but has been a strong advocate of Test Cricket.
“To a certain extent (whether he agrees with Shastri) but also no. You look at the way franchise cricket is going now, there are a lot of franchises that have multiple teams in the world across different countries. Obviously, India, CPL, and South Africa now, you see people having multiple franchise teams,” Ben Stokes was quoted NDTV.
“You can say, T20 is now becoming a business for certain people but it is obviously great for the game that things like these are happening, you know it gives a lot more opportunity, there are more opportunities for players than there were 15 years ago. Life outside of cricket, security, and the money that is involved in the sport now is a lot more than it was 15-20 years ago,” Stokes was further quoted.
Stokes said that Test Cricket is not going away and is the purest form of the game.
“So there is also that which needs to be looked at, professional sport in itself is a very short career, not only do you want to be playing the best cricket as long as you can but you also need to think about the future. If you want to stop playing cricket, that could be it but Test cricket, I do not see it going away,” he said.
“I am a huge ambassador for the format, it is the pinnacle of cricket. The purest form of it. Yeah, I can never see Test match cricket going anywhere even when T20 cricket is sort of changing the face of the sport but Test match cricket is still the pinnacle of the sport,” the new England Test skipper said.