Lorgat says Tests must stay No. 1

	Haroon Lorgat says it's important Twenty20 is used to help cricket, but that Tests remain the major format © Getty Images

Haroon Lorgat, the incoming ICC chief executive, has said it is vital for Test cricket to remain the No. 1 format. The explosion of Twenty20, especially the advent of the IPL, has raised questions about the future of five-day cricket with the fear that some players may end their international careers early to take up lucrative deals such as those offered by the IPL.

Lorgat believes the sudden surge of Twenty20 might need to plateau so that a balance is maintained between all the different formats, although he is still confident it can help boost the game overall. "I sat in on the ICC cricket committee meeting this month and they were very clear that Test cricket should remain the pinnacle of the game and I agree," Lorgat told Reuters. "It's a form of the game we can use as a wonderful opportunity to grow cricket globally, though we will have to manage the load that Twenty20 takes on against Test and 50-over cricket.

"We are seeing a lot of Twenty20 now because the IPL is going on, but like most things that are new, you see an explosion of interest at first and then things settle down. We might be having too much of it at first but I hope going forward we can keep a sensible balance between Twenty20 and the other formats."

Lorgat will take up his position at the annual conference - which has been moved from London to Dubai - in July at a time when the ICC's image is under fire because of events which cumulated in the early departure of Malcolm Speed last month.

"I would always prefer to see the game itself receive the maximum exposure in the news rather than the off the field issues that we have read about," Lorgat said. "They are not the kind of stories you want reported about the ICC.

"But with me soon to start, and with David Morgan beginning his term as president at the same time, I hope we will be given the opportunity to project the game itself into the newspapers and improve the current image."