Former England cricketer Mark Butcher believes that the World Test Championship has led to a decline in the popularity of Test cricket.

While New Zealand and Australia are the winners of the inaugural two editions of the World Test Championship, India has qualified for the final of the biggest Test event on both occasions. The WTC was introduced to increase the popularity of Test cricket, in which teams were allowed to wear Test jerseys with sponsors and numbers on the back.

While there has not been a huge increase in viewership for Test cricket in England, Australia and other countries, India has been a place where fans come primarily to watch white-ball games.

Speaking to Wisden, Mark Butcher claimed that the World Test Championship has damaged Test cricket and is working towards the decline of the red-ball format. According to Butcher, he knows a lot of people who look at the WTC points table and say it’s exciting, but according to him it’s not, it’s even worse than before.

“The only effort that has been made to try to keep it relevant, I think has made it worse!” 📉@markbutcher72 believes that the introduction of the World Test Championship has contributed to the decline of Test cricket.

Listen: pic.twitter.com/x7njEOHdE1

– Wisden (@WisdenCricket) January 6, 2024

Mark Butcher’s big statement about the World Test Championship (WTC)

Mark Butcher said while speaking to Wisden: “One of the things that has actually made this even more inevitable is something they have done to try to save Test cricket, which is the World Test Championship. I know a lot of people think, they look at it, they look at the table and they say: Won’t all this kind of thing be exciting? But is not. The point is that their bilateral series must capture the imagination of the fans and players of the two countries playing in it and then the wider cricket-watching public.”

Mark Butcher believes that Test matches are already very competitive and important events and the introduction of the ICC World Test Championship has not benefited the purest format of the game. He also believes that the introduction of the World Test Championship has made things worse for Test cricket.

“The only way to achieve this is if they are competitive and that has always been the case. The test match series and the test matches themselves, you know, the individual games, were important events. The idea of ​​expanding everything to span three years and blah, blah, blah, and some shows are worth this and some are worth that, something can’t be resolved this week. It makes it even more nebulous. “I think the only effort that has been made to try to keep it relevant has made things worse.”

Mark Butcher added that the concept of the World Test Championship is difficult to understand and fans only care in the final months when there is a race between teams to book their place in the WTC final.

“By making this matter in the larger context of things, you’ve ended up with this ridiculous system that nobody understands and that nobody really cares about until you get to the last two or three months, when you can see who could make it to the finals . That’s a way to convince the audience that this is worth watching.”

“That effort has been made in all the wrong places, and in the places where it really could have made a difference, that is, leveling out income from television rights, allowing countries to retain their best players, allowing them to be able to pay a universal standard of money for Test match appearances and whatever.”

“Then you allow the richest boards to pay their players whatever they want on top of that. You know, this is just a surrender. “It’s been a slow car accident so far, and now it’s like an explosive impact has occurred.”

The next World Test Championship final will be played in June-July 2025.