Low-ranked teams wary of two-tier Test proposal
Test cricket’s newest nations are in despair at plans to split the format into two divisions, fearing it could undo decades of hard-fought progress on the field and kill interest in the game.
The International Cricket Council is meeting in Edinburgh this week to debate proposals for the seven top-ranked teams to establish a de facto premier league in a bid to boost waning interest in Tests. Under the scheme being considered by the ICC, the other three countries with Test status would join a five-strong second division along with Afghanistan and Ireland.
While the shake-up would guarantee cricket’s leading nations play each other every other year, the other sides would be starved of matches which draw in crowds and lucrative broadcast deals. As things stand, the two latest arrivals at cricket’s top table — Bangladesh and Zimbabwe — will be doomed to the second tier and could be joined by another relative newcomer in Sri Lanka.