Galle (Sri Lanka), Aug 23: While there are murmurs and demands for Test matches to be reduced to four days, instead of the present five-day games, an upcoming red-ball international cricket match will be of six-day affair. To be more precise a six-day Test match.
Sounds strange? But it's a fact. The Galle Test between hosts Sri Lanka and visitors New Zealand will indeed have a rest day.
As far as Galle Stadium is concerned, it was severely affected by a tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004. But the stadium has been rebuilt and has got a facelift.
Remind you, earlier Test matches use to be six-day affairs, with a day of rest. That allowed the players to rest, recover and recharge themselves during a gruelling Test match. The game involved five days of play and one day of rest.
The First Test between the Lankans and the Kiwis at Galle, which starts on September 18, will have a rest day on September 21, when the voting is set to take place in the island nation, the Sri Lanka cricket board informed on Friday.
As per the ICC Schedule, the island nation will host New Zealand for a two-match Test series during next month's Presidential election in Sri Lanka, the country's cricket board (Sri Lanka Cricket) added.
After the six-day First Test, the same venue will also host the Second Test from September 26. But the Second Test will be an usual five-day match, SLC sources clarified.
As per New Zealand's recent Test records in the island nation, the Kiwis toured Lanka in August 2019, when the two-match Test series had ended in a draw.
As far as the Sri Lanka elections are concerned, next month’s Presidential poll is the country's first election since it declared a sovereign default in 2022 during an unprecedented economic crisis.
It can be recalled that after months of protests over shortages of food, fuel and medicines, the then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa had stepped down, after an immense crowd of angry Sri Lankans stormed into his premises.
He was succeeded by Ranil Wickremesinghe, who introduced tough austerity measures in line with an IMF rescue package negotiated last year.
Though Presidential polls will definitely decide Sri Lanka's political future, economy and growth, but for cricket enthusiasts, a six-day Test match is likely to rekindle old memories.
A rest day during a Test match, is something that has become bit of history. Well, who knows the Galle Test may be the last six-day Test, under any circumstance, if the ICC plans four-days Tests in future.
If Test matches are reduced to four days in times to come, then a day of rest in between (if at all) can only make it a five-day affair.
In that case, the Galle Test between Sri Lanka and New Zealand may be remembered as the last official six-day Test.
However, in cricket we never know! Because it is a strange game and rules keep on changing too.
