{"id":75788,"date":"2025-08-17T20:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T20:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/75788\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T20:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T20:08:09","slug":"johnson-slams-cricket-australia-ceo-over-test-cricket-comments-firstpost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/75788\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnson slams Cricket Australia CEO over Test cricket comments \u2013 Firstpost"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson strongly criticized Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg for advocating that Test cricket should be exclusive to a select few nations.<\/p>\n<p>Former Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson has slammed Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg\u2019s suggestion to limit<a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstpost.com\/firstcricket\/india-victory-over-england-oval-test-shri-shiva-rudrashtakam-16th-century-lord-shiva-hymn-13924750.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Test cricket<\/a> to fewer nations. As per Greenberg, only top teams should compete in the longest format of the game, as it will ensure financial viability as well as high-quality contests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think everyone in world cricket needs to aspire to play Test cricket, and that might be Ok,&#8221; Greenberg said, as quoted by The West Australian.\u00a0\u201cLiterally we\u2019re trying to send countries bankrupt if we force them to try to play Test cricket\u201d. Greenberg hinted that Test cricket can only feed on rivalries like the Ashes.<\/p>\n<p>STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS ADJohnson does not see eye to eye with CA CEO<\/p>\n<p>Johnson firmly opposed the idea, arguing in his West Australian column that reducing opportunities for developing nations would harm the essence of the game. He emphasised that true leadership involves uplifting others, not eliminating them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe solution isn\u2019t to scale Test cricket down to three or four rich countries,\u201d Johnson wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s to help the rest grow. Players want it, fans want it \u2014 so why are we making it so hard? What these nations lack isn\u2019t passion, it\u2019s support. And if the ICC and the so-called big three want to protect the future, they need to stop hoarding the privilege and start sharing the responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Johnson also stressed the notion that there are factors beyond the broadcasting revenue that should be considered as well. He supported his stance by presenting the example of Sri Lanka vs Pakistan, a series that may not break viewership records but means a lot for the players and fans, something which should be protected at all cost.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA Sri Lanka v Pakistan series might not break streaming records, but to the players and fans it means everything. You don\u2019t protect that by cutting it off. You protect it by investing in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Johnson further stated that when money can be poured into different T20 leagues, the similar reservation can be made for Test cricket. He said that money should be diverted towards the right direction.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe money is there \u2014 it\u2019s just being pointed the wrong way,\u201d Johnson wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson strongly criticized Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg for advocating that Test cricket should&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,18587,58367,1950,19912,85],"class_list":["post-75788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-cricket-australia","tag-cricket-australia-ceo-todd-greenberg","tag-cricket-news","tag-mitchell-johnson","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}