ICC plans Test league in cricket revamp
The ICC’s Chief Executives' Committee (CEC) has recommended the formation of a Test league and a play-off, to be held every four years, to determine the world’s best Test team.
The proposal is part of a package of plans to restructure the international cricket program across Test, ODI and Twenty20 cricket, which also includes a 10-team World Cup competition from 2015, and the introduction of a Twenty20 International rankings table.
While England and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 cricket fans in the grip of Ashes fever may not need any extra incentive to turn up and tune in to Test cricket when their countries compete for that precious little urn in 2010/11, there is merit in attaching some greater meaning to the constant flow of Test series between other nations; series which can struggle to capture fans’ imaginations.
The CEC’s proposed Test league, then, is intended to provide such series with some context, with the top four teams in the league to qualify for a Test play-off.
The committee’s recommendations propose that the play-off should be held once every four years to determine the Test champion team with the first play-off to potentially be held in 2013.
The CEC also discussed the need for Test cricket pitches to provide a fair balance between bat and ball in order to help achieve a result and a “true contest” between the teams.
And as ODI cricket continues to appear more and more jaded in comparison to the brash, young Twenty20 game, the CEC has recommended the future program for ODI cricket should also include a league, beginning in April next year and concluding in April 2014, which would end with an ODI champion being named. The proposed competition would be separate to the cricket World Cup.
The proposed reduction in teams in the World Cup is another idea that has some logic to it. There are 14 teams scheduled to compete at the 2011 staging of the tournament, with four teams that are not ICC full member nations qualifying for the event.
They are teams that may benefit from the exposure to ODI cricket against the world’s best teams, but also sides that can’t be said to have a realistic chance of winning the competition. They are minnows that will – the occasional upset side – be gobbled up by the big fish, and whose inclusion in the event does little to enhance the value of the competition.
Such sides, however, will have their chances to compete on the big stage in Twenty20 cricket enhanced if another of the CEC’s recommendations is implemented, with the committee proposing that from 2012 the World Twenty20 be expanded to a 16-team competition (12 teams competed in the 2010 staging of the event).
The committee finally recommended that, like Test and ODI cricket, an international rankings table be established for Twenty20 international cricket.
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