Cricket: Emphasis on T20 and one day game 'shortsighted'

Former cricket captain Martin Crowe. Photo / Getty Images

One of New Zealand's greatest batsmen will lead the chorus singing for an immediately revamped schedule of domestic cricket.

New Zealand's drought-breaking seven-run victory over Australia this week has the potential to be a springboard for further success, but Martin Crowe fears it will be just another false dawn if cricket bosses here continue to pay lip-service to the first-class game.

The next first-class match played on these shores will be the one-off test against Zimbabwe starting on January 26, while the Plunket Shield has been locked away in a broom closet until February 17. In between there will be a diet of one-day and Twenty20 matches as New Zealand Cricket maximises the potential for crowds over the holiday period.

Crowe believed NZC's commercial imperative was shortsighted and would prevent New Zealand realising their potential in the five-day game.

"If you want to play good test cricket like we did [in Hobart] then schedule everything around first-class cricket," Crowe, who scored 71 first-class centuries at a tick over 56, said.

"You can still fit in the commercial competitions that bring in the money, but we've got a problem when our next first-class match in this country is the test in late January.

"Go figure, it just doesn't stack up for me."

New Zealand has the "bones" of a good test side, and in three years the batting unit, based on the existing top six, will either have 10 test centuries or more next to their name or, in the case of test neophytes Kane Williamson and Dean Brownlie, be well on the way to that mark, Crowe said.

Senior bowlers Chris Martin and Daniel Vettori are still in good form and Tim Southee, Doug Bracewell and Trent Boult have the potential to give New Zealand a cutting edge for years to come.

That comes with a cautionary note.

"There's the bones there to be very good, but it depends what our priorities are because I don't sense we prioritise test cricket; certainly our domestic schedule doesn't suggest that," he said.

"That's where Australia have dropped the ball in recent years, with their emphasis on Twenty20, just like we have."

Crowe's voice adds heavyweight backing to the concerns raised by New Zealand coach John Wright. He described the issue of a domestic schedule heavily loaded towards one-day and, particularly, T20 cricket as "huge" and said it was effectively a handbrake on the development of batsmen who were test-ready.

It is not just those who will feature for the test side against Zimbabwe and South Africa, who arrive in mid-February, who are affected.

Crowe said the best measurement of the strength of your test side was the standard of players who were knocking on the door trying to force their way in.

In the absence of domestic first-class cricket, there wasn't any way of gauging that second-tier strength.