HEADLINE: The radical two-division plan for Test cricket

In reply to Emir



Have u seen the bias and favoritism in this clause?

There's already a second-division of Test cricket, comprising Afghanistan (11 Tests in 7 years), Ireland (9 Tests in 7 years) and Zimbabwe (119 Tests in 32 years, but only 5 in last 3 years). The question has to be asked - do these countries even want to play Test cricket, let alone more Tests, which is presumably what a second-division of 4 or 5 teams would entail. The players probably would, but their cricketing boards? ICC would surely have to allocate more funds to the second-division teams to compensate for playing more loss-making games and missing out on games against the bigger sides.

In reply to Chrissy

i agree with KTom that there is already effectively a 2nd tier of teams which only get to play 2 or 3 match Test series and we see in the year 2025 that WI has never played a test against Ireland and has only played one I believe against Afghanistan. I do not object to an official 2 tier series once the second tier is properly funded/subsidized, plays regularly at least 3 test series and has the possibility of promotion to the upper tier. I do not think that players who want to play franchise cricket only will ever stop merely because we are a first tier team. Similarly, I do not see the point in saying all teams are equal when only some get to play 5 test series and others are relegated to 2 and at best 3 test series.

In reply to PalsofMine

its a cost thing. England ranked no 6 in the wtc right now, but can afford to put on the ashes every three years. even though there are 5 teams ranked above threm, three of which are much poorer than them financially

In reply to Jumpstart

Then if test cricket is only about revenue generating rather than the quality of play and development of the sport, the concept of "test" cricket should be abolished and we should have glorified franchise league among Eng, Oz and India. call it F5dayIs. We can all watch with as much interest as we watch IPL

In reply to Jumpstart



Well, it's not a cost thing to the extent that the ECB make money, not lose it, from all their home series. Incidentally, the World Test Championship standings are not the same as the official ICC team rankings. As will be seen, England are currently ranked 4th. England's standing in the WTC table suffered from point deductions for alleged slow over rates - without those, I think they would have been 4th anyway.

In reply to imusic

I notice everyone of these experts on tiers evading this question ......

Greed is destroying the world. For a worldwide sport cricket doesn't even have enough world-class teams to.have a serious WC or test championship that would feature half the teams I. a football world cup. Large continents such as SA doesn't even have one such team! Africa only, Europe 1 sometimes (England is not in Europe), but they want the sport to grow right?