Mathews opposes ECB's reported one-off Test in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka allrounder Angelo Mathews has reacted strongly to reports suggesting that the England and Wales Cricket Board is planning to reduce its future tours to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to just a single Test match in an effort to make tours more commercially viable for host boards. The proposed model would reportedly include one Test followed by white-ball matches, reports Indian daily newspaper India Today.
According to multiple reports, the ECB is considering moving away from the principle of reciprocal home-and-away series in the next cycle of the ICC World Test Championship, which is scheduled to begin with the Ashes in England next summer.
"We should not play one-off Tests with anyone! If any country doesn't want to play more than one, so be it! There's nothing called bigger nations and Test status is equal for all Test-playing nations," Mathews wrote on his X account.
The reports also claimed that the ECB has held discussions with South Africa and Pakistan over the possibility of staging five-Test series for the first time in decades. This prompted a further response from Mathews, who has played 119 Tests for the island nation, amassing 8,214 runs at an average of 44.40 with 33 wickets. Mathews announced his retiement from the longest fromat in June last year.
"You can't have one team playing 20 games and another playing 10 games in the same championship cycle! Generating revenue and keeping Test cricket alive are two different things, and you should not mix up the two!" he added.
The developments come as cricket administrators are reportedly considering allowing one-off Tests to be included in the next WTC cycle while also exploring the expansion of the competition to 12 teams. Under the proposal, Ireland, Zimbabwe, and Afghanistan could be included in a single-division format for the first time.
As part of the discussions, England are also considering playing their first Test in Zimbabwe since the 1996-97 season. However, the ECB is unlikely to tour Afghanistan or face them outside ICC global events.
The ECB is understood to support the one-Test series model on the grounds that it could provide more opportunities for smaller nations while also aligning with its strategy to preserve and sustain the longest format of the game.