The tension between Tests and T20s

Is limited-overs cricket really a stain on the game? Is this tendency to favour the longer formats over ODIs and Twenty20s predominantly an English belief? Andy Bull, writing for the Guardian, has more.

The tension between the formats, which both Philby and Preston touch on, is not an exclusively English condition. Far from it. Clive Lloyd, who now seems to resemble a great grizzly bear as much as he does the cat from which he once got his nickname, complained last week that "this T20 competition" has "messed up" cricket in the West Indies. The players, Lloyd says, are going after the money: "It doesn't seem playing for our country is paramount." The example he gave was Andre Russell, who, at the age of 26, has played 17 first class matches, and 130 T20s. He's just told Lloyd - the WICB's head of selectors - that he doesn't want to play Test cricket, because his injured knee won't let him. "It's such a waste that we have a guy who could be a great cricketer who is now not thinking of playing both formats."