LONDON: Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) chief executive Keith Bradshaw fears the proliferation of Twenty20 will virtually kill off Test.

Fewer players will be capable of playing the five-day format because most will be “schooled purely” in the 20-over game, Bradshaw warns in the April edition of The Wisden Cricketer publication.

“I consider myself optimistic, but it isn’t difficult to look ahead and see the pessimists’ apocalyptic version of the future of the game — where Tests cricket are virtually redundant, Twenty20 saturates and players are globe-trotting mercenaries,” Bradshaw said.

An example of this is Andrew Flintoff, the England allrounder who quit Test cricket last year due to persistent injury problems so he could continue in the one-day international and 20-over international formats.

While Bradshaw believes Tests could become the “preserve of four or five countries,” he also recognises that Twenty20 can help to expand the game, predicting there will be 20 international sides playing the shortest form in five years’ time.