ICC turn to Test Championship with Two-Tier Test proposal dropped

With the Two-tier Test match proposal firmly out of the window at the moment, it is clear that the International Cricket Council (ICC) will have to do something to salvage Test cricket as far as the associate nations are concerned. However, now, the council is attempting to salvage the same by organizing an ODI league and a Test championship.

Reports from ESPNcricinfo go on to suggest that the current ranking and FTP arrangements between teams will still be maintained while the top two teams in the rankings will play a Test championship playoff. The teams, however, remain to be allowed the right to negotiate Test series against each other. The report and the release also went on to suggest that there will be a league structure in place for the ODI and T20I championships.

Haroon Logart, the CEO of the South African Cricket Board and a former CEO of the ICC went on to state that the assumption was that everyone supported the primacy of international cricket on a whole. “That was the belief of many bearing in mind that everyone supports the primacy of international cricket,” Lorgat told ESPNcricinfo.

Logart added that “What is clear is that a few members do not support the two-tier system, so we will need to find another way to develop a Test champion using the existing rankings table.”

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“You need seven to support any change, to make it more sensible,” a CEO who was present at the Dubai workshop, said. “You don’t have India. You don’t have Bangladesh. You don’t have Sri Lanka. That is three strong playing cricket countries. Zimbabwe was fourth. West Indies in principle were supportive of it. So two-tier won’t work.”

“Even if you are not guaranteed fixtures in the current system, they are happy to be in one division. So they rather not play cricket than being in a two-tier structure where you will be guaranteed cricket. There is no logic in that. In this compromised version that seems to be finding favour, all the 10 members will be in one division.”