Test Championship and ODI League to start in cricket
The International Cricket Council has accepted the proposal from the Chief Executive Committee and said there will be a league-style Test Championship. There will also be an ODI cricket league which will be based on the current ODI team rankings tol complement
that Test Championship.
However, the move that is going to disappoint many of the lesser cricketing countries is that the ICC has decided to reduce the number of teams in the cricket World Cup to 10 from the 2015 edition of the tournament. In 2007, there were 16 teams who had been
a part of the tournament, while the 2011 version will see 14 sides play in the tournament. Earlier, the Associate nations had strongly opposed this suggestion.
What will warm their hearts is that the ICC World T20 – or the World Cup for the T20 format – will see 16 teams fight it out in the tournament from the next edition in 2012. All three editions of the ICC World T20 have seen 12 teams participate in the tournament.
The ICC said that the Future Tours Programme will include a Test league that will be played over a period of four years. The top four teams at the end of the four year period will feature in the play-offs. The first play-off will be played in 2013 around the
period when the Aussie and English teams will play in the Ashes. The final of the play-offs could be played at Lord’s. The ODI league will end in April 2014 with the first ODI league champion.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Haroon-Lorgat-c61719, the chief executive of the ICC expressed happiness over the proposed changes. He said, "Restructuring international cricket is a significant strategic challenge and one that must be dealt with. We have now agreed in principle to exciting and
far reaching proposals to tackle this important issue."
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