Kumar Sangakkara is the fifth-highest run scorer in Test cricket history. Ishara S Kodikara / AFP
Kumar Sangakkara is the fifth-highest run scorer in Test cricket history. Ishara S Kodikara / AFP
Kumar Sangakkara is the fifth-highest run scorer in Test cricket history. Ishara S Kodikara / AFP
Kumar Sangakkara is the fifth-highest run scorer in Test cricket history. Ishara S Kodikara / AFP

Kumar Sangakkara bats for minimum pay in Test cricket to arrest player exodus to T20s


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Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara has called for Test cricket to introduce a minimum match fee for all countries to stop young players ditching the long-form for lucrative Twenty20 leagues.

Sangakkara, the fifth-highest run scorer in the history of Test cricket, retired from the first-class game last year but has continued playing for domestic T20 franchises around the world, including in this week’s Hong Kong T20 Blitz.

The 40-year-old former wicketkeeper-batsman praised the shorter format for spreading the game's popularity to new markets but warned that without change Test cricket could face a battle to remain relevant for young players and fans.

"T20 is the ideal format to introduce - you talk about the Americas, with China," Sangakkara told AFP on Wednesday. "Since its inception it's been a huge pillar of strength for world cricket.

"But there are a few negatives ... a lot of young players taking up T20 instead of playing international cricket.

"There are various things that have been discussed, about parity of pay, especially when it comes to match fees for Test cricket. "Shouldn't there be a blanket minimum pay for Test cricketers?

"The top countries are being paid a certain Test match fee -- shouldn't that be reflected all throughout the Test-playing countries?"

Australia captain Steve Smith is one of the highest-paid cricketers in the world. Michael Dodge / Getty Images
Australia captain Steve Smith is one of the highest-paid cricketers in the world. Michael Dodge / Getty Images

Currently, international match fees paid to cricketers from different Test nations vary wildly, with the sport's so-called "Big Three" - India, England and Australia - far ahead of the rest.

According to a survey last year by ESPNCricinfo, Australia captain Steven Smith was due to earn US$1,469,000 (Dh5,394,902.50) in 2017 while Zimbabwean captain Graeme Cremer pocketed just $86,000.

Twenty20 competitions have sprung up around the world, from Australia's Big Bash League and India's Indian Premier League which stretch out over many weeks to smaller competitions in Hong Kong, Bangladesh, and the UAE which last just a few days.

Players from poorer nations can often earn more in the Twenty20 world than by representing their countries at Test level.

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The MCC world cricket committee last month endorsed calls for wage reform at its annual meeting.

Fans as well as players need to be canvased on the changes required to keep Test cricket as the sport's pinnacle, including day-night and four-day Tests, Sangakkara said.

"We need to understand what Test cricket means to players and what it is to fans," he said. "Relevance in sport is so important in terms of not just growing the sport but also sustaining it.

"I think international cricket is very strong still. For any player, I think the honour of representing their country be it in Test, one-dayers or T20 cricket, it's still the pinnacle of the game."

Sangakkara, who is appearing for Galaxy Gladiators Lantau in this week’s Hong Kong tournament, also praised the shorter format for extending his career.

"T20 is definitely the easiest format at my age to stay competitive in," said Sangakkara, who retired from the first-class game in September.

Sangakkara went out at the top with a remarkable final flourish for Surrey in the English county championship, finishing as the competition's top scorer with 1,491 runs at an average of 106.50.

"I'm definitely a has-been!" he joked.

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

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Water waste

In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.

Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.

A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.

The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.

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