Sir Clive perturbed by talk of plan to split into two divisions

Tue, Jan 7, '25

 

“I’m very disturbed about this…It must be stopped now.”

Legendary former West Indies cricket captain Clive Lloyd did not mince his words as he responded to a media report out of Australia yesterday that talks are planned to split Test-playing teams into two divisions.

A report in the Sydney Morning Herald has suggested that Australia, England, India and the International Cricket Council’s new chairman Jay Shah are in talks to split Test cricket into two divisions so the big three nations can play each other more often in series.”

The report noted that the concept of two tiers in Test cricket was previously floated at ICC level in 2016, with a model where seven nations would compete in the top division and five in the second rank.

It added that any plan for a move to two divisions in Test cricket would kick in after the end of the current Future Tours Programme in 2027.

However, Lloyd does not see West Indies, currently ranked eighth out of 12 Test teams, recovering if they were confined to a tier two.

“We cannot sustain the system with the money that we are acquiring at the moment,” Sir Clive told members of the regional and international media on a Zoom call yesterday. “We are in a very vulnerable situation. And now you are making us even poorer by what you are doing.”

Read more at Trinidad Express

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