Joshi: Hadlee proposes a Test World Cup. (06 Oct 95)

HADLEE PROPOSES WORLD CUP FOR TEST CRICKET

By Vijay Joshi

Cricket legend Sir Richard Hadlee on Friday proposed radical changes in the game, including a World Cup for Test cricket to keep spectator interest alive in the five-day game. But two other former captains, Mike Gatting of England and Greg Chappell of Australia, disagreed. Hadlee, New Zealand`s greatest player ever, also predicted that an Asian country, likely Sri Lanka, will win the next World Cup tournament to be played in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in February and March. The Sri Lankans ``are one of the most improved sides. They are the most fancied to win the World Cup,`` said Hadlee at a Foreign Correspondents Association luncheon speech he shared with another cricketing great, Graeme Pollock of South Africa. The four cricketers are here to play in the Worldwide Cricket Sixes tournament this weekend among 10 countries. Each team will play with six players instead of the normal 11. Pollock said he would put his money on India winning the 1996 World Cup even though the Sri Lankans are in top form after beating Pakistan in their own grounds 2-1 in a Test series and 2-1 in a one-day series last week. Hadlee, noting that one-day cricket had depleted crowds at five-day Tests, suggested a world cup for a so-called ``super test`` to be held once in three or four years. But Chappell, at a separate news conference, said: ``I don`t want to see cricket that way. I oppose fiddling, but some aspects can be fine tuned.`` Gatting made similar comments. At present, the nine cricketing countries crisscross their test matches by playing at different times of the year and in differing playing conditions _ not a good barometer for overall supremacy. Hadlee said one match in a regular five-test series could be played as a preliminary for the ``super test.`` Bonus points could be awarded for outright victories, highest wickets taken or highest runs, providing incentives for teams to play more exciting cricket at least once during the series. The two nations with the highest number of bonus points would then clash at the ``super test.`` ``How can you determine which is the best team in the world? Super test is one way,`` he said, speaking at a fast clip, conjuring images of his deadly fast bowling that helped him scalp 431 wickets in Tests. The outstanding all rounder, now 45, also has scored 3,124 runs in 86 tests with two centuries. Hadlee later said that it was the first time he has publicly aired the Test world cup idea. Another inevitable change in the game, he said, is day-and-night tests. Pollock, said he ``basically agreed`` with Hadlee`s suggestions. ``That is the way to go,`` said Pollock, once regarded as the best batsman in the world. His cricketing career was cut short when South Africa was ostracized from world sports in 1970 for its apartheid policy of racial segregation. Hadlee, who played for New Zealand from 1972 to 1990, said he was ``gravely concerned`` about New Zealand`s cricket fortunes following their string of recent losses. He is only one of four players in the world to have taken 300 Test wickets and scored 3,000 test runs and was the first player to have been knighted for his services to cricket while still an active player.