ICC approves Test Championship and One-Day Cricket League
The International Cricket Council in its meeting in Dubai has approved the idea of holding a Test Championship on a league-basis. Moreover, the governing body has also re-designed some aspects of the ODI game as part of the wide-ranging reformation process
for international cricket. The restructuring programme also includes an abridged 50-overs World Cup event and an extended ICC World T20 Championship.
All the above proposals were laid out by the Chief Executive Committee of the ICC that had met in Cape Town, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 last month and were approved by the executive board at its meeting in Dubai today.
The ICC’s Future Tours Programme (FTP) will now include a Test league running over a period of 4 years and the top four teams of the Test league at the end of each period will then qualify for the playoff event. The first playoff event is scheduled to be
held in 2013 at the home of cricket, Lord's - the same year when England is scheduled to host the esteemed Ashes series.
The board also approved that a one-day cricket league will also be part of the FTP. The league would mirror the existing team rankings and will start in April next year. Running over a period of 4 years, the one-day cricket league would conclude in the crowning
of the first One Day International League Championship in April, 2014. The venue for the final of the one-day league is yet to be decided. The one-day league would run separately from the quadrennial ICC Cricket World Cup. The ICC’s flagship event has been
reduced to 10 teams for the 2015 World Cup.
The 2011 World Cup, which would be jointly hosted by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747, would feature 14 teams including 4 associates as well. The associate teams had earlier expressed strong reservations over the reduced 50-over World Cup as a 10 team-event
that would make it quite tough for these low-profile sides to qualify for the high-status event next time. The International Cricket Council has asked the governing council to pore over the matter of qualification for ICC international events, as well as prospects
for the Associate members to play more one-day cricket, and make proposals to the executive board.
The number of participating teams in the World T20 Championship, on the other hand, has been increased to 16 from the year 2012. ICC Chief Executive http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Haroon-Lorgat-c61719 was quite excited after having tackled with the important issue of restructuring the game.
"Restructuring international cricket is a significant strategic challenge and one that must be dealt with," said Haroon Lorgat. "We have now agreed in principle to exciting and far reaching proposals to tackle this important issue."
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