Former England cricketer Mark Butcher disagrees with introduction of World Test Championship

The World Test Championship (WTC) was introduced in the year 2019 by the Apex Cricket Council to improve to bring back the love for Test Cricket. It has been an interesting tournament where the two finalists are chosen based on their performances in the bilateral series in two years. This was a new way of making Test Cricket more competitive and giving them an audience as well. This did bring some interest from the views and the cricketing fans into Test cricket. The plan of jersey numbers and pink ball Tests have also brought a lot of audiences to these games and everyone is enjoying it.

There have already been two WTC winners with New Zealand winning in 2019-2021 and Australia winning in 2021-2023 championships. India has been a two-time finalist in both these competitions as well. This might have given a new take on Test cricket to the audience, but there are still some experts who have not been happy with the introduction of this tournament. There are even people saying that the WTC has caused more problems with the format than solved it. However, some people respect the decision made by the council to make Test cricket into a spectacle for the audiences.

Mark Butcher’s disagreement

Former England Test cricketer Mark Butcher is one of the people who does not support this decision to introduce the WTC. The 71-match veteran has gone onto trash the idea of the council saying “ The only effort that's been made to kind of try and keep it relevant, I think, has made it worse". With this statement, the 71 Test match veteran also said that it was the wrong approach by the council to boost Test cricket and even compared it to a slow-moving car crash.

These are bold and harsh statements made by Butcher against the Council and will be talked about in the future as well. However, there is something to think about listening to these statements about teams playing a two Test match series will always be a dead end. Maybe to make the WTC interesting the time might be to abolish the rules of playing a two-Test series and set the requirement at at least three. This can make a Test series more interesting and captivating in the future of Test Cricket.