West Indian pace legend Michael Holding has described Twenty20s as "rubbish" and called for limiting the format to only domestic cricket.
Holding is not happy with the game's administrators for not doing enough to preserve Test cricket.
"A strong future for Test cricket? I don't think so," Holding was quoted as saying by Cricket Australia's (CA) website on Thursday (September 7).
"No, the administrators keep talking about preserving Test match cricket but you name me one thing that they have done to preserve it," he added.
The former fast bowler felt T20 is a "circus" where "bad teams" could beat good ones.
He explained, "Next year (England) are having seven Test matches. Two in May and none in June and July.
"The best part of the summer will be all rubbish (Twenty20 cricket). I don't even call that cricket. It's Barnum and Bailey circus entertainment. Test match cricket is a test of your ability and your strength of character over an extended period.
"If you go through the short forms of the game you will see how many bad teams beat the good teams. In Test match cricket you hardly ever see a bad team beat a good team."
He said cricket administrators were thinking about money and not the game. "There has to be consequence and relevance to Test match cricket, but it will never happen. Money is all that matters to the administrators. The game doesn't matter. I wouldn't get rid of Twenty20 but I would limit it to domestic cricket. The trouble is it's difficult to change now because it's like a weed run wild."
T20 cricket has grown massively with each country having its own league. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) launched the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008 and in 10 years it has become a huge hit among fans.
Recently, Star India bagged global media rights of IPL for a whopping Rs 16,347.5 crore for five years from 2018 to 2022. With this historic deal, BCCI ears more money per IPL match than a home international game involving India.
Australia have Big Bash League (BBL), Pakistan hosts Pakistan Super League (PSL), Bangladesh started Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) while England, South Africa, West Indies (Caribbean Premier League) and Sri Lanka all have domestic T20 leagues.
