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Former India World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev has urged cricketing governing body ICC to take steps to protect the Test and One Day International formats as there is a massive surge of lucrative domestic Twenty20 competitions across the globe. 

“I think it’s fading out,” Dev expressed on Monday in Sydney, where he was the guest of honour at the India Australia Strategic Alliance dinner celebrating 75 years of Indian Independence. He was talking on the same day when Cricket Australia announced their five-year strategy recognising the impact of privatisation and expanding T20 leagues on the global cricket landscape.

“The ICC [International Cricket Council] has a bigger responsibility how to manage this game,” Dev said. “It’s going the way as football in Europe. They don’t play against each country. It is once in four years [during the World Cup]. Is this what we’re going to have, the World Cup and the rest of the time playing club [T20 franchise] cricket?

“In a similar way, will cricketers eventually be playing mainly the IPL or the Big Bash or something like that? So the ICC have to put more time into that to see how they can ensure the survival of one-day cricket, Test match cricket, not only club cricket,” he continued. 

He then expressed how if all these cricket continued gaining prominence then like football, international cricket would be only for the World Cup. He said, “Club cricket is OK for a while. The Big Bash is OK. But the South African league is coming, the UAE league is coming. If all the countries are going to play the club cricket, then international cricket will be only for the World Cup.”

Cricket Australia in its five-year strategy, focused on the impact of privatisation and expanding T20 leagues on the global cricket landscape. They addressed how COVID-19 has affected the “core cricket activities,” which includes a re-structure of the governing body’s digital project and renouncing the centralised academy program.

“COVID has sharpened focus on purpose, priorities and financial sustainability” the strategy states. “Global cricket is changing rapidly with the introduction of private investment and new domestic T20 leagues.”