Brian Lara says T20`s no threat to Test cricket

Johannesburg: Former West Indies captain Brian Lara believes that the rising popularity of Twenty20 international games is not harmful for Test cricket, as both the formats can succeed together.

Insisting that Test cricket and ODIs still have an important place in the cricketing world, Lara said that with the advent of the T20 format, the viewership of people watching the game has increased, Sport24 reports. He added that cricketers are entertainers and if T20 is a crowd-puller, then cricketers would be happy to satisfy their fans. Lara hailed David Warner, Chris Gayle and Virender Sehwag as some of the top players of the T20 format, and said that the players` fine form is guaranteed to bring excitement to the game, which will be a positive effect. He said it is not fair to blame T20``s for bowlers losing interest in Test cricket, saying they are probably pulling out from that format because of the vast workload. He added that money is also a strong factor as T20`s offer attractive financial incentives to the players. Lara believes the growing popularity of Twenty20 cricket will help the West Indies generate more interest in the game among the younger generation. ANI