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	   By Vijay Joshi
	   SINGAPORE Oct 6 Sapa-AP
	   HADLEE PROPOSES WORLD CUP FOR TEST CRICKET

Cricket legend Sir Richard Hadlee on Friday proposed radical
changes in the game, including a World Cup for Test cricket to keep
spectator interest alive in the five-day game.

But two other former captains, Mike Gatting of England and Greg
Chappell of Australia, disagreed.

Hadlee, New Zealand's greatest player ever, also predicted that
an Asian country, likely Sri Lanka, will win the next World Cup
tournament to be played in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in
February and March.

The Sri Lankans ``are one of the most improved sides. They are
the most fancied to win the World Cup,'' said Hadlee at a Foreign
Correspondents Association luncheon speech he shared with another
cricketing great, Graeme Pollock of South Africa.

The four cricketers are here to play in the Worldwide Cricket
Sixes tournament this weekend among 10 countries. Each team will
play with six players instead of the normal 11.

Pollock said he would put his money on India winning the 1996
World Cup even though the Sri Lankans are in top form after beating
Pakistan in their own grounds 2-1 in a Test series and 2-1 in a
one-day series last week.

Hadlee, noting that one-day cricket had depleted crowds at
five-day Tests, suggested a world cup for a so-called ``super
test'' to be held once in three or four years.

But Chappell, at a separate news conference, said: ``I don't
want to see cricket that way. I oppose fiddling, but some aspects
can be fine tuned.'' Gatting made similar comments.

At present, the nine cricketing countries crisscross their test
matches by playing at different times of the year and in differing
playing conditions _ not a good barometer for overall supremacy.

Hadlee said one match in a regular five-test series could be
played as a preliminary for the ``super test.'' Bonus points could
be awarded for outright victories, highest wickets taken or highest
runs, providing incentives for teams to play more exciting cricket
at least once during the series.

The two nations with the highest number of bonus points would
then clash at the ``super test.''

``How can you determine which is the best team in the world?
Super test is one way,'' he said, speaking at a fast clip,
conjuring images of his deadly fast bowling that helped him scalp
431 wickets in Tests.

The outstanding all rounder, now 45, also has scored 3,124 runs
in 86 tests with two centuries.

Hadlee later said that it was the first time he has publicly
aired the Test world cup idea. Another inevitable change in the
game, he said, is day-and-night tests.

Pollock, said he ``basically agreed'' with Hadlee's
suggestions. ``That is the way to go,'' said Pollock, once regarded
as the best batsman in the world. His cricketing career was cut
short when South Africa was ostracized from world sports in 1970
for its apartheid policy of racial segregation.

Hadlee, who played for New Zealand from 1972 to 1990, said he
was ``gravely concerned'' about New Zealand's cricket fortunes
following their string of recent losses.

 He is only one of four players in the world to have taken 300
Test wickets and scored 3,000 test runs and was the first player to
have been knighted for his services to cricket while still an
active player.

	   Sapa-AP