Flower worried over future of Test cricket

Andy Flower, the England coach, has called on the ICC to do more to maintain the primacy of Test cricket. Flower highlighted the retirement of Sri Lanka fast bowler Lasith Malinga from Tests, to focus on limited-overs cricket, as a warning sign.

"There's a great danger [of others following suit]," Flower told the Independent. "It's a great sadness to world cricket that we're losing players like him from Test cricket - that guy should be playing Test cricket for Sri Lanka." Malinga's retirement, coming soon after offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan quit, has hit Sri Lanka badly, with the side being winless in their 14 previous Tests.

"The rewards out there for playing less cricket are obvious," Flower said. "The ICC have to address that as a serious problem. They have to act very responsibly and make decisions on what's good for the game in the future. I'm not sure that's the case at the moment."

Flower also said boards needed to stop putting cash above cricket, and questioned the schedules of bilateral series. "The intent behind which nations draw up their fixture-list is based on financial gain as opposed to testing the best against the best," he said. "We have situations where we play seven-match one-day series that are too long and, if they're one-sided, can be damaging for the game.

"We want to find out who the best side in the world is and we want to have them compete in exciting conditions and exciting series, but at the moment the intent is a financial one."

The ongoing series between South Africa and Australia, two of the top Test teams in the world, is only two Tests long, which Flower termed "ridiculous" and "saddening".