Cricket News: International Cricket Council pursuing the idea of World Test Championships
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has recently reviewed the option of holding an ICC test championship by 2013. A Test World Cup has been under discussion for the longest time at ICC’s executive meetings. The ICC chief executive
committee (CEC) went through a multitude of proposals that discussed a Test Championship as well as a longer, more exciting T20 World Championship. With the T20 form of the game making a splash, many in the sport argue that it takes away from what makes the
sport great, and that it has resulted in a distinct lack of quality cricket. It is to safeguard the integrity and beauty of the “Gentleman’s game”, that such a step is taken by ICC.
Test cricket is the longest and highest form at which international cricket is played between those international teams with ‘Test status’, as determined by the ICC. England and Australia contested in the first ever officially
recognised test match, which commenced at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on the 15th of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760,
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045’s Test status till May 2011.
The bigger picture for the redrawing of one-day cricket into a new league will commence mirroring the existing team rankings. The proposed League will start from April 2011 and will run over four years, culminating in the crowning
of the first ODI league champion in April 2011. The league would be kept separate from the World Cup, and would include only ten sides based on the lengthy tournament of 2007 which was widely criticised for including a massive of 16 teams and took too long
to finish.
Expansion of the T20 Championships is being done so in order to include smaller teams who as yet have not attained test status. These smaller teams include the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Haroon-Lorgat-c61719,
the chief executive of ICC spoke freely on the subject saying, “Restructuring international cricket is a significant strategic challenge and one that must be dealt with, I am grateful to the CEC and its working group for making such far-reaching proposals
to tackle this important issue,” also adding, “Achieving balance and unanimous agreement is not easy but it is a very important piece of work that requires a strategic response. The holistic set of proposals, especially introducing more meaningful context,
means we now have the potential to follow international cricket that is even more exciting.”
The two-day meeting in Cape Town the CEC also discussed issues regarding bad light, which is also the sole discretion of the on-field umpires. The players are only allowed to leave the field in case of dangerous
conditions and if the floodlights are not in proper functional use. ICC officials believe that clear instructions are given to match officials regarding the issue.
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