Red-ball cricket franchise competitions will help England Test team: Kevin Pietersen

Former England batter Kevin Pietersen thinks that England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) should introduce franchise competitions in the red-ball cricket as well to help the team raise their standards in Test cricket. 

Pietersen said in his column for Betway: "In the Hundred, the ECB have actually produced a competition with some sort of value. They now need to introduce a similar franchise competition for red-ball cricket, whereby the best play against the best every single week."

He added: "They would make money available to attract some of the best overseas players in the world and the top English players would benefit from playing alongside them."

"It would be a marketable, exciting competition, which would drive improvement in the standard and get people back through the gates for long-form cricket," he stated.

"We need to produce lucrative, high-quality, interesting competitions that reward and improve the best players. This could be one. This Ashes defeat needn’t be a total failure if they [the ECB] can use it to implement proper change for the Test side,” 

It is pertinent to mention that England has been under severe criticism after being brutally outplayed by Australia in the first three Tests of the five-match series Down Under as Aussies will look to complete a 5-0 white wash by winning the remaining two Test matches in Sydney and Hobart.