Former Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf has asked the Cricket Board (PCB) to raise the Test match fees or face the possibility of a further slump in the rankings of the game's five-day version.
Yousuf told the inquiry committee of the PCB, constituted a few months ago to probe into the national team's disastrous tour of Australia, that Pakistan was facing a shortage of quality Test players.
"The truth is we don't have enough quality Test players. We are now just good at Twenty20 cricket. We are not producing players who are technically strong and capable of playing long innings," Yousuf said in a leaked video recording of the proceedings held earlier this year.
"Nowadays the players are only interested in playing ODIs or T20 matches. And why not, when he can earn between Rs 200,000 to Rs 300,000 for one ODI or T20 match, whereas he gets only Rs 250,000 for a Test match," he argues.
"The board must raise the Test match fees immediately to create interest among the players and offer them appropriate financial compensation for playing Tests compared to limited overs matches," he said.
Yousuf himself was indefinitely banned by the inquiry committee for his failed captaincy on the Australian tour, which later forced him to announce his retirement from international cricket in protest.
The former skipper was also critical of the standards of Pakistani Test players.
"The fielding was also atrocious and one of the main reasons we lost the series. We should have never lost the Sydney Test but we couldn't even chase down a target of 172 runs. You tell the players to play carefully and selectively and next ball they are playing a loose shot and throwing away their wicket," Yousuf had told the committee.
"They don't have Test match mentality," he said.
