South Africa captain Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar oppose four-day Test

“I am a fan of five-day Test cricket,” Du Plessis was quoted sa saying by Cricbuzz. “I believe the great Test matches have gone to the last hour of the last day on day five. That’s what is so special about Test cricket. In four-day cricket or first-class cricket, it does feel easier because there are only four days.

“For five days you have to graft it out. Bowlers have to bowl a lot more and batters have to construct much bigger innings. This Test proved that a day five was needed. If it was a rain-off yesterday, it would have been very disappointing so I am a fan of that.”

Man-of-the-Match in the Test against Bangladesh, Elgar also expressed similar sentiments and said that no one should change what has continued for long.

“I’m a five-day Test specialist, and it must stay that way in my opinion,” he said. “I don’t think you should tinker with something that’s not broken. If you go and play around the world, Test cricket is followed quite well. If you play in Australia, if you play in England, even if you play in South Africa against the relatively big nations you still get very good crowds. There are other formats that are being experimented with. I don’t see why Test cricket should suffer. I am a purist when it comes to that. Hopefully the game can have longevity in the five-day format.”

“Us as players, we know we still have to have a job. We have to go out and play for five days,” he said. “I don’t think you should tinker with the duration of the match depending on who you are playing against. That’s when you start disrespecting the game a little bit and ultimately not favouring the format. You can ask me this as many times as you want. I am a five-day specialist and that’s the way it should stay.”

With the opinions of two top players have laid barren CSA’s plans of hosting a Day-Night Test of four days against Zimbabwe on Boxing Day which could have been finalised without proper consultation with the team.

According to a report on Cricbuzz, former CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat and former coach of South Africa team Russell Domingo had informal discussions about the four-day Test. The issue was to be discussed with the players through South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) which are yet to happen.

“I expressed the concern to CSA before Haroon left that there was no proper consultation,” said Tony Irish, SACA’s chief executive. “There should have been proper consultation because there are a lot of cricket aspects – it is quite a big change to a new format, it’s four days and also day/night, playing against a team that has never played pink-ball cricket.”

“There’s a lot of work that needs to go into it,” added Irish. “We know there are scheduling advantages but there hasn’t been enough work done on it. I understand why CSA want to do this. They want to provide content over a period where there is traditionally cricket. I am not sure that a four-day day/night Test against Zimbabwe is the answer.”

Du Plessis was also of the opinion that a captain will have to be more creative if four-day Test become a norm in the coming days.

“You will have creative captaincy, more aggressive game plans, sporting declarations,” he admitted. “But I think with the way Test cricket is at the moment, it’s about how long you can go, how long can your skill sets last. That’s the challenge with Test cricket. When four-day Tests come, obviously people will just make sure they change and adapt the way the game needs them to. That’s what we as players have to do, we adapt our skill sets.”