A focus on quality, rather than quantity should be at the centre of the ICC's proposal to shorten Test cricket from five to four days, according to New Zealand Cricket Players Association chief executive Heath Mills.
With the ICC reportedly considering reducing traditional Test matches from five to four days, citing player workload, nations such as Australia and England have thrown their support behind the idea.
The current proposal would see Test cricket cut short by a day leading into the 2023 World Test Championship.
Speaking to 1 NEWS today though, Heath Mills, head of the New Zealand Cricket Players Association, says that any proposed changes to the game would need to have evidence behind them, rather than just citing general player welfare.
Mills suggested the current playing group are sceptical over any proposed switches away from tradition.
"We'd need to consider all ideas and proposals, you can't have a closed mind to these things," Mills said.
"But I think the playing group as a whole would need to see a lot of research-based evidence that it was the right thing for the game, from a playing perspective, commercially, and also from a scheduling point of view."
"There's a whole lot of work to be done before people would be convinced that that's the right way forward."
However, while the ICC suggest that the move would be centred around player workload management, cricketing cynics would argue that the change would accommodate more shorter form, domestic Twenty-20 leagues around the world.
"Moving from five days to four days in Test cricket to create more space would be a concern for us, because what would that space be filled with? It's not going to be rest or recovery time for players.
"From our point of view, a much more important focus is the schedule as a whole, especially post 2023.
"What's that going to look like? Are we going to have ICC events every year? Is all the revenue going to be shared equally? Are there going to be some boards who make a play - like they did last time - for more revenue?
"These are much more important questions for us at the moment."
Mills added that the most important feature of any changes to the future of cricket centre around the quality of the game at the highest level, rather than sheer quantity of matches being played.
"If we're going to have any change at all, it's to have a streamlined, coherent schedule for all nations, so that we have an equal balance between Test cricket and short form cricket, and also the T20 leagues.
"Most importantly, that we preserve the international game so that the best players were playing at all times. That's what we want to see, the best playing the best.
"We don't want to reduce one format from five to four days if it means we only end up with more T20 Internationals being played, and us moving through players quicker than we already do.
"The keyword is balance. Yes, the discussion should be had about four day Test cricket, but it needs to be in the context of the overall schedule."
The ICC will vote on the future of Test cricket later this year.
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