 The
International Cricket Council chief executive committee (CEC) has set out
a proposal for a World Test Championship. The Championship will be part of the
Future Tour Programme set by the ICC and will run for a period of four years.
At the end of the which, the top four teams will enter a play-off where they will
play each other. The first play-off is scheduled to take place in 2013.
A Test championship was previously played in 1999 - between India, Sri
Lanka and Pakistan. Called the Asian Test Championship, the ICC had tried this
out as an experiment before they looked to have the nine (then) Test playing nations
involved in the ICC Test Cricket World Cup. The tournament, scrapped after just
one attempt was won by Pakistan. Sri Lanka had finished runners-up.
Along with this the CEC has also proposed a new league for one-day cricket. The
one-day cricket league is scheduled to be introduced after the World Cup, next
year and will run until 2014. The team, ranked one will be crowned champions in
April 2014. This league will run according to the fixtures listed in the Future
Tours Programme. With the inception of the league, there will be no hindrance
caused to the ICC World Cup, which is also proposed to have modifications. The
2015 World Cup, scheduled to be played Down Under, will comprise of only 10 teams,
a reduction from the 14 that will participate in the 2011 World Cup.
With this, the CEC hopes to make the premier event a little less monotonous as
the previous edition, which featured 16 teams was seen as a drag.
The World ICC T20, which will next be hosted by Sri Lanka in 2012 might
see 16 teams featured in it. The success of emerging nations in this format, has
seemed to pioneer this proposal.
All these matters were discussed in a two-day meet arranged by the ICC in Cape
Town.
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