After England star Moeen Ali claimed that ODI cricket could die "in a couple of years" because the current schedule is "not sustainable", Azeem Rafiq has warned the "same conversation will be happening about Test cricket" soon.
Ben Stokes recently retired from ODIs and labelled the schedule "unsustainable", while several other top stars have voiced their concerns over its future. Australia's Usman Khawaja believes the format is "dying a slow death", while India's Ravi Ashwin feels it has lost its "relevance".
And Moeen has become the latest to issue a stark warning, saying: "It's all over the place at the minute. "You're trying to get a couple of franchise gigs which are decent, but you're going to miss a couple of Test matches or the ODIs - that's the horrible bit, I think, because you want to play for England as much as you can. You don't want to be missing… I used to hate resting when I was a bit younger.
"At the moment it's not sustainable in my opinion. Something has to be done because I fear losing the 50-over format in a couple of years because it's almost like the long, boring one, if that makes sense.
"It's almost like you've got T20s, you've got the Test matches which are great and then the 50 overs is just in the middle - there's no importance given to it at the moment. So yeah, I think there's too much - personally I feel like there's too much going on.
"It's great in a way, because there's always cricket being played, but it should never come in the way of international cricket in my opinion."
Since England's World Cup win, the 50-over format seems to have taken a backseat, with players often rested for ODI series in order to focus on Test matches and T20Is and the domestic One-Day Cup tournament played at the same time as The Hundred as a "development competition".
And while reacting to Moeen's comments on social media, Rafiq shared his disappointment at the way things have gone since the World Cup. He tweeted: "So disappointing how the 50 over format has been talked about.
"Winning the 2019 World Cup should have been start of a very special period in the format like Australia across 1999-2003-2007 world cups. Also if we really think this stops at 50 over We need to wake up because this same conversation will be happening about Test Cricket after".
