Root: 100-ball format could help boost Test cricket

England Test captain Joe Root feels the ECB’s new 100-ball tournament could attract a new audience to the longest format of the game.

The ECB unveiled plans last week to introduce a new format to domestic cricket in 2020 that will see 15 regular six-ball overs and one 10-ball over.

ECB director of cricket Andrew Strauss explained why the tournament was needed and Root believes the new concept can help grow the game.

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Root told the i newspaper: “It’s going to appeal to a completely new audience and I think that’s great,”  “The more people and kids we can get into sport, the better.

“We’ve got to be very careful we don’t measure it against the other formats…it’s something to gather a new audience and gain interest, not a threat to other formats.

“As players, working with the ICC, we’ve got to make sure the other formats don’t suffer but it has a place in the game and, hopefully, we’ll see that over time.

“There will be people that compare it to Twenty20 and worry it might take away interest from Test cricket, but it’s important to remember it will bring new people to the game.

“It might be someone who didn’t know much about the game before and then goes on to watch a Test match and gets immersed in that. That’s the way I’d like to look at it.”

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Former England skipper Alastair Cook said the proposed new tournament could be an “interesting step for cricket.”

Cook told Sky Sports: “If you went back to 2003 when the ECB launched Twenty20 cricket, if social media had been big then I think people would have kicked up the same fuss as they have here.

“It’s different, it’s exciting – how it all works with the County Championship and Test matches and when it’s played is still to be [decided], but it’s an interesting step for cricket.

“Cricket has made huge changes since I started – T20 being one of them – so let’s see how it all pans out. Whether I will be there to experience it, I don’t know, but I’ll certainly be watching.”