New Delhi: Former Indian skipper Rahul Dravid feels that youngsters today don’t have the “all-consuming” desperation to do well in Test cricket because they have so many other options, which is not good for the future of test cricket in India.

Dravid said the young Indian players make all the right noises when they talk about Test cricket being the pinnacle of the game but he fears that they don’t have the passion of their seniors, who would do whatever it takes to do well in this format.

“I think they say the right thing. They talk the talk, there’s no doubt about it. But there is no all-consuming desperation for them like it was for myself or cricketers of my generation to do well in Test cricket,” Dravid said during a fortnightly discussion show on a website. “First-class and Test cricket were the only cricket we had. Today, there are more opportunities.”

“I’m not even worried about the Rainas and the Rohit Sharmas today; they’ve grown up in an era when Test cricket was important. But I wonder what a 14-15-16-year-old today is thinking. I wonder what’s going to happen five years ahead and that’s why it’s important to play more Test matches,” Dravid explained.

Dravid said BCCI should have a set domestic calendar covering a six-seven months period, during which India would play their international home matches, including a larger number of Tests.

“We must have our own domestic calendar, or six or seven months that are ideal for us to play cricket. And play our quota of six Tests and a certain set number of ODIs during that period, and then work around that,” he said.

Dravid said that BCCI should use its power to convince other boards to accept the calendar because if Test cricket succeeds in India, it would succeed worldwide as well.

“Everyone around the world needs to recognise that Test cricket needs to thrive in India. Everyone knows now that it is important Test cricket succeeds in India for it to succeed worldwide as well,” he said. “People have to come to this realisation in some other countries and recognise that India now needs to have a set international calendar for the benefit of the world game really.”

He also insisted that India’s bilateral Test series should be either a three-match series or a five-match one, not just two, like in the recent series against South Africa.

“Three Test matches is ideal. In my whole career now, I’ve played only one Test series (against West Indies in 1997) which has included five Tests, and in the olden days that (five Tests) was the norm. In this case, with the talk of the Australian series coming up, these have come in outside of the calendar,” he said.

Tagged with: India, New Delhi, Rahul Dravid, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina

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