Pakistan coach Misbah-ul-Haq said that the inaugural World Test Championship should be played in its entirety, even if it means extending it past its scheduled end, to ensure that a fair winner is determined at the end of the cycle.

The Championship cycle has been disrupted by the suspension of all cricket around the world due to the coronavirus outbreak. With a packed window on the ICC’s FTP schedule, accommodating suspended fixtures at a later date is practically impossible.

That leaves the ICC with one of two options – cut short the tournament or play it out in its entirety by extending the season – and Misbah thinks it should be the latter course that the ICC takes, to ensure that all teams get a fair shot at making the final at Lord’s.

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“When we finally start moving back to normal life and cricket can resume, every side should get equal opportunities and the tournament shouldn’t be shortened,” Misbah said in a video press conference.

“No matches should be struck off, even if that means prolonging the Championship. Every side should get the chance to play all the games they had scheduled in this cycle.

“Otherwise, you won’t get the true picture of what the rankings should have actually been and only some teams play all their games. That will disrupt the balance of the tournament. To me, it doesn’t matter if this goes beyond 2021 if that’s what it will take for everyone to get equal opportunities. That’s not a problem.”

[caption id=”attachment_137058″ align=”alignnone” width=”800″] Pakistan are currently fifth on the World Test Championship table[/caption]

Misbah also reflected on the challenges in front of sportspersons to remain fit while locked indoors and shed light on the measures put in place by the PCB to make sure its centrally-contracted cricketers are maintaining optimal physical condition.

“All of our centrally contracted players and those in our wider pool are in complete contact with the coaching staff and the fitness trainer. We send them the training plans that we want them to follow and to keep ourselves in shape to the best of our abilities. We want to ensure when cricket resumes, the physical conditions of our players should be the same as it was before and meets the demands of international cricket.

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“We have groups online where we check in with players on how they think they’re doing. We share plans with them on the exercise regimen to follow even if they don’t have access to gym facilities.

“Because we can’t practice on the ground, what we can do is make sure we do our homework properly. That goes both for me and the players. We look at the last couple of series we played there and how England played in the last season at home. We analyse what we can do better so as soon we get the opportunity, we hit the ground running.”