LONDON - The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) announced on Saturday that an overwhelming 86% of fans prefer watching the five-day matches compared to the limited-overs versions, many of them saying Test cricket was the “ultimate” form.

The longstanding custodians of the game wanted to assess the popularity of the longest format against the limited-over versions and put out a survey. Here are its major findings.

Titled the ‘MCC Test Cricket survey’, the idea behind the research was to test the popularity and relevance of the longer format among fans, and whether they had the time and inclination to follow the oldest format of the game.

The survey was carried out across 100 countries with over 13,000 fans participating. “Overwhelmingly, Test cricket came out as the format that interests fans the most, regardless of country supported or age,” the MCC said in a release.

The results allowed the MCC to conclude that there was a “positive future” for Test cricket based on the review of the survey.