The World Test Championship (WTC) should be held every four years on the lines of the World Cup in the shorter formats of cricket, batting great Sachin Tendulkar told Reuters on Tuesday.

India and New Zealand will contest the inaugural five-day WTC final in Southampton from Friday for test cricket’s biggest honor, along with a winners’ cheque of $1.6 million. The WTC was launched in 2019 following the successes of the T20 and 50-over World Cups, with the top nine test-playing nations competing in a league format across two years to decide the two finalists. Tendulkar, 48, the most prolific run-scorer in both tests and 50-over cricket, urged the International Cricket Council to schedule future test championships in a dedicated two-three months’ window like the World Cups.

Maybe to generate even more interest, it could become like a World Cup. A World Cup is not played all across the globe. World Cup is played in just one or two countries," Tendulkar said in a telephone interview.“We need to decide which are the countries where you can host test championships. And within possibly those two months, you just play test championship.“If you are playing one match against each other, then to play final just as a one-off game also makes sense. But if you allow everyone to play entire series and then just play one game as final, then continuity is not there."Tests played between two countries over the last two years counted towards an overall points table under the WTC to determine the two teams for the final. Critics have pointed out that the final should have been promoted more heavily as there has been barely any buzz created for Friday’s contest, which was switched out of Lord’s due to COVID-19 protocols.