London, June 22: His team may have finished runners-up in the T20 World Cup, but Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara still nurtures a soft corner for the longest version of the game.
”I think Twenty20 should enhance Test cricket; Tests should have prime importance,” Sangakkara said after his team suffered an eight wicket-defeat to Pakistan in the final of the World Twenty20 at Lord’s last evening.
The shortest format of the game has caught the fancy of the masses with the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) and the T20 World Cup being widely hailed as a great success, but Sangakkara asserted that cricketers still accord pride of place to Test cricket.
”If you ask players around the world, every single player will admit Test cricket is the real test,” he remarked.
”At the end of the day not many people will go around saying you scored 2,000 runs in Twenty20 cricket but they will talk of you if you score 10,000 runs in Test cricket.
”That is the final ambition of all cricketers and if you are a good cricketer you can play any format of the game,” he added.
The 31-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman stated that his teammates would be delighted if more Test matches were accomodated in the Future Tours Programme, although it would imply a greater workload.
”We as Sri Lankans would love to play 10 to 12 Test matches a year, we would like to see that day come very soon,” he quipped.
—–Agencies