The future of Test cricket continues to come under the microscope following Australia's most recent demolition job of South Africa.
Australia's home summer has seen big wins over the West Indies and South Africa, while crowd sizes continue to struggle in the five-day format globally.
New Zealand's first Test on their tour of Pakistan was played out in front of sparse crowds, as other series in recent years have been.
The gap in quality in the five-day format has also widened, with real fears that more and more nations will be unable to keep pace with those at the top of the world rankings.
Fox Cricket analyst and former spin bowler Kerry O'Keefe believes he has found the answer though, suggesting Tests be cut to four days with more time in each day, and the first innings of each team be limited.
โIโd make them four day matches โ I'd take a day off,โ he said.
โI'd dispense with the lunch break and I'd ask umpires and captains to hurry the game along.
โI'd have a half-hour break in the middle of the day, save 30 minutes there. Why have a 40 minute lunch break and a 20 minute tea break? We could break that up. And I would almost restrict the first innings to 100 overs each.โ
Removing 30 minutes of break time per day could be seen as a step backwards given the oppressive conditions the sport is often played in, while over rates have been a particular bug bear of some commenters, with teams regularly failing to bowl 90 overs in a day, despite the extra half hour being allowable at the end of each day's play to catch up on lost overs.
Four-day Tests have already been trialled in some series, with extra play on each day as a result, although as yet it has widely failed to catch on, with Australia yet to be involved in a shortened Test.
