Kohli Is Against ECB's Proposal Of 100-Ball Format

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Indian captain Virat Kohli has raised his concern over 100-ball format proposed by England's Cricket Board (ECB) in April this year.

After the huge success of 20-over format and T20 leagues, ECB proposed a new format of 100-balls. Initially, the 100-ball concept proposed two eight-team tournaments - for men's and women's teams consisting of 15 traditional six-ball overs, and a final 10-ball over, a 20-delivery shortfall on traditional T20 matches.



However, Indian skipper did not seem too pleased with this format of the game. He raised his concern and said the commercialization of cricket taking away the real quality of the game. Kohli told Wisden Cricket Monthly,

"Obviously for the people involved in the whole process [of the 100-ball competition] and the set-up it will be really exciting but I cannot think of one more format, to be honest. I'm already very... I wouldn't say frustrated, but sometimes it can get very demanding of you when you have to play so much cricket regularly. I feel somewhere the commercial aspect is taking over the real quality of cricket and that hurts me.

"Honestly, I don't want to be a testing sort of a cricketer for any new format. I don't want to be someone who's going to be part of that World XI who comes and launches the 100-ball format. I love playing the IPL, I love watching the BBL because you're working towards something, competing against high-quality sides and it gets your competitive juices flowing. That's what you want as a cricketer. I'm all for the leagues, but not to experiment."



From past few years, Test cricket has been struggling to regain its lost shine among the so many T20 leagues across the world. Kohli feels that experimenting with the game is not good for the longest format. Kohli urged the cricket boards to step up and work towards improving the quality of first-class cricket.

"If you're not going to give more importance to first-class cricket, then people are going to lose motivation to play the longest format of the game," Kohli said. "And with the T20 format coming in I think there's far greater responsibility on all the cricket boards across the world to treat first-class cricket really well, because if the facilities and the standard go up, then the motivation always stays. You don't want players to get into that mindset where they're finding the easy way out."

Kohli may not happy with 100-ball format but he really welcomed the World Test championship idea by ICC which will begin in July 2019 with an Ashes series. The championship is scheduled to play between July 2019 to March 2021 after which top two teams will play the final. The Test championship can be the boon for the test cricket.



"I think the Test Championship is going to give a huge push to Test cricket. It makes every series more competitive, and there's going to be ups and downs throughout the Championship, which I really look forward to," Kohli said.

Virat Kohli and Team Indian are currently featuring in 5-match Test series against England. After the first three-match England is leading with 2-1. The fourth match will start from August 30 at Ages Bowl.

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