BCCI to oppose the ICC's two-tier Test structure

BCCI will strongly oppose the two-tier Test system proposed by International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Dave Richardson, in which, top cricketing nations will be divided into two divisions and the top seven Test nations will compete in division one for the title of world Test championship.

The structure was proposed at the ICC meeting in June and was supported by England Cricket Board and Cricket Australia. Recently, New Zealand Cricket also welcomed the proposal.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) had openly appealed to the BCCI to not support a two-tier Test system. The goal of the proposal was to add more context to bilateral series and make it entertaining. Most of the cricketing nations except India, Australia, and England had found it hard to draw the crowd at stadiums.

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka along with West Indies are the 3 bottom ranked teams and as per the proposal, they will have to play with the associate nations. The argument is that they will not get to play against top sides, then the space for improvement will be less.

Also read – India to play one-off Test against Bangladesh next year

“Not at all. The BCCI is against the two-tier Test system because the smaller countries will lose out and the BCCI wants to take care of them. It is necessary to protect their interests. In the two-tier system, they will lose out on a lot, including revenue and the opportunity to play against top teams. We don’t want that to happen. We want to work in the best interests of world cricket and that is why our team plays against all the countries,” Thakur was quoted by Indian Express.

With the opposition from BCCI, the plan may go on hold. The next discussion on this will take place in September. “We’ll decide after getting the  final report from MIT,” Thakur said.

Also check out – Twitter reaction: Star Sports faces outrage for no telecast of Eng v Pak Test