Pune: Much travelled Sri Lanka head coach Mickey Arthur voiced his support to keep Test matches a five-day affair, saying reducing it to four will amount to “messing up” with the fabric of the longest format. 

Arthur, who has also coached South Africa, Australia and most recently Pakistan, joined his ICC Cricket Committee colleague Mahela Jayawardene in supporting five-day Tests. 

“Look, five-day Test cricket is the way to go (forward). Test cricket challenges you mentally, physically and technically and a lot of a time on the fifth day (a result comes). We just witnessed a very good Test match (England versus South Africa) that finished on day five,” Arthur said ahead of the third T20I in Pune.
 
“I know, we can talk about financial pressures and that type of stuff. I think the fabric of Test cricket should not be messed [up] with. You want wickets deteriorating on Day Five, you want [situations] where there is lot of really good exciting draws,” Arthur said on the eve of the third T20 between India and Sri Lanka here on Friday.