Former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga revealed that the island nation is considering staging a Twenty20 tournament on lines of the highly-successful Indian Premier League and has requested the International Cricket Council for a window in their future tours programme.
Asked to elaborate on Sri Lanka's plans, he replied: "We are thinking of that [a Twenty20 tournament], but we do not have any plans as such. We have written to the ICC to give us a window to hold the tournament, like what the Indian Board has proposed. But there are no plans as of now."
The stocky left-hander, however, made it clear that he is not a big fan of the Twenty20 format, saying "it is not proper cricket".
"I am not a big fan of Twenty20 cricket but I like to come and watch mainly because people demand Twenty20 cricket. I will say it is not proper cricket, but Test cricket is the number one because it is proper cricket. There are a lot of changes now, but I hope Test cricket will not lose interest among cricket fans. It is very good to see that some of the cricketers are being paid very well, but money is not the only factor," Ranatunga said.
The 1996 World Cup-winning captain believes that despite Twenty20 proving a huge hit, Test and one-day cricket will survive.
"I think there a lot of people who love to come and watch one-day cricket, a lot who love to watch Test cricket. I hope that will go on. Whatever said and done, you need to show a lot of character to play Test cricket, unlike Twenty20 where you just go and hit the ball. You don't need to plan and do a lot of other things but when you play the longer version, like Test cricket or one-day cricket, you need to have talent and character," he said.
He asserted that Twenty20 is only for the masses and its evolution has drawn more fans to the stadiums.
"I think Twenty20 will survive because people demand it. A lot of people come and watch the matches because it is for a shorter period of time after their work is over."
