Mark Nicholas wears many hats. The latest one is that of the president of the MCC. He is among cricket’s finest commentators — he succeeded the legendary Richie Benaud as anchor of Channel Nine’s cricket coverage — and a perceptive writer on the game. He never played for England, but skippered its ‘A’ side. For a decade he was captain at Hampshire, where he led the likes of Malcolm Marshall, Gordon Greenidge, David Gower and Robin Smith. He spoke to The Hindu at Cape Town during the second Test between South Africa and India. Excerpts:
Are you concerned about the future of Test cricket, as many people are?
I think Test cricket is going to have to find windows. As the franchise tournaments continue to almost kidnap the game, in a way, and then demand ransoms, probably the best thing everybody can do is find a couple of windows a year, maybe Christmas and New Year into January and June and July, maybe July and August, where you play Test match cricket.
