LONDON: The ‘loyalty to money’ which Twenty20 leagues around the world are promoting has made it impossible for any country to strike the perfect balance between all three formats of cricket, says former Australian captain Steve Waugh. Waugh, however, feels India, Australia and England are closest to getting the equilibrium right. Worried about the impact that Twenty20 cricket is having on the game, Waugh said the incentive on offer in T20 leagues has led to a decline in loyalty towards national duty. “I think Australia is the closest when it comes to striking a balance, India has the potential and England is also coming up nicely…I think it’s impossible to strike a perfect balance given that there are three different teams.
It’s not realistic. I don’t think there would ever be one world no.1 in all three formats of the game,” Waugh said in an interaction with the Indian media at the Laureus World Sports Awards here. “Somebody like Brendon McCullum retired from Test cricket even though I feel he still had three-four years in him. He is just working for superannuation right now, for his family, which is alright. Overall I feel there is no loyalty to the team, there is loyalty to money now. I don’t blame the players but it’s tough on the fans,” Waugh said.
Waugh said West Indies were prime example of how T20 can affect the growth of other formats. “There is a danger and we all know that. Look at West Indies. The incentive to play T20 cricket is so much more than Test cricket,” he said. Talking of Australia, Waugh said Steven Smith’s men deserved their early ouster from last month’s World T20. “I appreciate that we put Test cricket at a pedestal and because of that probably T20 has suffered but I respect Cricket Australia for giving primacy to Test cricket. As a result we didn’t have a settled line-up in World T20 and we got what we deserved. There will be a shakeup and we will pay T20s a bit more respect,” he said.