| Series | Countries | Live Scores | Fixtures | Results | News |
Features
|
Photos | Blogs | Statistics | Archive | Video & Audio | Games | Mobile | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
ICC news
Test Championship moves a step closer
Cricinfo staff
September 14, 2010
|
|||
|
Related Links
News : Clean up your act, ICC tells PCB
News : ICC approves Test championship News : ICC to discuss spot-fixing, Test Championship News : Associates criticise World Cup proposals News : No plan to exclude Associates from World Cup - ICC Audio/Video:
'India are the most disputed No. 1'
Sites:
Cricinfo ICC Site
|
|||
The prospect of a Test Championship has come a step closer as part of an extensive restructuring of the international game after the ICC's chief executive committee (CEC) laid out a set of proposals for five-day and one-day cricket. Along with the Test Championship, which has been earmarked for some time, they recommended a reduced 50-over World Cup and an enlarged World Twenty20 event.
The proposed format for Test cricket will have the Future Tours Programme (FTP) consist of a Test league running over four years with the top four teams at the end of each period qualifying for a play-off event. The first play-off is scheduled for 2013, the same year England are due to host the Ashes, and Lord's is believed to be the favoured venue for the final.
In a wide-ranging proposal for the redrawing of one-day cricket, a new league - mirroring the existing team rankings - would be introduced, starting in April 2011 and running over four years to culminate in the crowning of the first ODI league champion in April 2014.
The league would run separately from World Cup which, as the ICC's flagship event, the CEC suggests reducing to 10 teams for the 2015 event. The 2011 World Cup, to be held in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, will include 14 countries and run from February 19 to April 2. The lengthy tournament is itself a smaller version than the 2007 event, which was widely criticised for including 16 sides and taking too long.
Given the success of smaller nations like Netherlands and Afghanistan in Twenty20 cricket the CEC recommends expanding the World Twenty20 to include 16 teams from the 2012 tournament, due to be staged in Sri Lanka, with the women's event continuing to run alongside. There should also be a Twenty20 league table as soon as possible, the CEC added.
"Restructuring international cricket is a significant strategic challenge and one that must be dealt with," Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, said "I am grateful to the CEC and its working group for making such far-reaching proposals to tackle this important issue.
"Achieving balance and unanimous agreement is not easy but it is a very important piece of work that requires a strategic response. The holistic set of proposals, especially introducing more meaningful context, means we now have the potential to follow international cricket that is even more exciting.
"Protecting and promoting all three formats at international level is viable and I believe the CEC has shown itself to be forward thinking in tackling the challenges. I am now encouraged to engage with the ICC executive board to consider these proposals as soon as possible."
During a two-day meeting in Cape Town the CEC also discussed bad light, which is now at the sole discretion of the on-field umpires, and said players should only leave the field if conditions are dangerous and shouldn't go off if floodlights are used even when shadows appear from the artificial light.
"There is a clear instruction to match officials that the players should only go off the field when conditions are considered dangerous or unreasonable," Dave Richardson, ICC's general manager of cricket, said. "In addition, players should not go off the field when the ground floodlights are switched on and these were deemed before the series to be adequate."
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
| Comments have now been closed for this article |
||||||
TopE-mail
Feedback
Print
Sponsored Links
The definitive Cricket Novel of the Century
Romance, Three 20/20 Matches, Murder Mystery, Book Now.
Access your Indian Rupee earnings from anywhere in the world.
ICICI Bank Money2India brings " locked exchange rate" and a free gift
on registering and transfer of USD 250 and above.
FREE copy of Playfair with Wisden order
At Cricshop.com
This is disgusting.limiting to a 10 nation world cup is not the need of the hour. It would be rather Commonwealth Cup(as top 10 nations are Commonwealth ones) than WC.....Think again ICC.To spread game and make it truly global as football we need to encourage more teams to participate. WC 2003 ws best eg..Kenya in semis....
Posted byThe World Cup in 2007 was a poor format, too many Super 8 matches with nothing on the line I reckon a 12 team tournament is sufficient for the 50 over game as there is realistically only room for 4 of the so called poorer teams (Zim Bang Ire Afg etc etc..) to still have an overall exciting high quality tournament, which all allegiences aside is what we want to watch. In the year beforehand a Qualifier tournament could be held in the region hosting the World Cup itself (similar to soccers Confederations Cup) involving Zimbabwe Bangladesh and the current WCL Div 1 Associate teams, with a format based something along the lines of the current Champions Trophy. For the tournament proper a model based on the 2011 world cup with 2 groups of 6, but where the top team in each advance directly to semi finals, while the next 2 in each are drawn into 2 quarter finals. Thats how i think they should approach it.
Posted by eire on (September 17 2010, 09:51 AM GMT)when i heard about the 10 team world cup, the words that came to my mind were disgraceful,scandalous & shambolic..this so-called initiative came from an organisation who are trying to spread the game to new countries, but how can they do this if all they do is hand places in their most prestigious tournament to the established & rich nations.To me this smacks of the GREED IS GOOD LEAGUE coming into place, just dine out to the rich n famous and leave the poor & unprivilaged battle for unpalatable scraps....Associates should not pay for the poor tournament scheduling & format that makeup the labourious ODI world cup....here is a simple solution 12teams wid 2 grps of 6 wid d top2 qualifyin for semis OR the current u19 or T20 world cup format.. Im a keen irish cricket fan who has seen their best players depart for another nation, dont tell me now that i cant enjoy watching my country at the sports so-called pinnacle,othwise i fear the current exodus to increase as we continue to develop
Posted by Spike13 on (September 16 2010, 22:02 PM GMT)I hope that it wil help help cricket to become more popualr within other countries. but they shouldnt try to focus completely on t/20, they have to make test and one day better. I personaly dont like T/20. one day and test is better. dont think that i am somone who is old i am 20 years old and i dont like t/20
Posted by Allan716 on (September 16 2010, 19:14 PM GMT)This is a move in the right direction. My suggestion would be to eradicate one-day cricket completely. T20 is a perfect format for the World Cup. Get 32 nations to qualify. It will be a lot of one-sided competitions at first, however, as the tournament progresses some really stellar games could take place. We cannot have Tests, One-days and T-20 co existing. The Test Championship will be the crowning glory!
Posted byI'm sorry but what is the point in making the world cup smaller? Wouldn't that just make it another champions trophy? Keep the WC the same, it should be the comp that cricketers aspire to win the most.
Posted by jackiethepen on (September 16 2010, 09:44 AM GMT)The officials seem to think the most exciting matches will be between top teams but in 2007 the games that attracted most attention were those won by the minnows. Everyone loves an underdog except the TV moguls looking at their potential audiences. When Pakistan and India went out a lot of money went with them. But cricket has to be a true sport like football when it comes to a World Cup. Football has never gone down that road and top teams were on their way home from South Africa early. I can't think of anything more predictable than the same top teams playing each other yet again - they play each other all the time anyway. The minnows add excitement because they have a real chance in the 50-over game and it is an incentive to their countries to compete. It gives them a stage and us a chance to see them. The World Cup should be a real showcase for the spread of the sport. I think a knockout competition would sharpen up everyone's concentration. As for Twenty-20 - what crowds?
Posted by Bensti on (September 16 2010, 08:19 AM GMT)This is a terrible day for the long term future and growth of the sport. I feel for the 500,000 players and countless more fans and volunteers in the emerging nations. To think, only a decade ago, there was only about 100,000 players at associate/affiliate level. The growth has been phenomenal in a short space of time. What incentive is there for them now? If they do not have a realistic chance to qualify for cricket's showcase "global" event (ICC World Cup), then they may as well go back to rugby, soccer and baseball. Even baseball with a 22 nation World Cup and Rugby with 20 teams, welcomes the emerging nations. To those that are working hard to grow the game in the 95 associate and affiliate countries, I say hang in there. There are many people fighting to have this proposal thrown out. Hopefully common sense will prevail. Hopefully the full members will see beyond their own short term interests. Then again, it is only the 10 full members who are allowed to vote on such matters.
Posted by Chuckworth on (September 16 2010, 05:57 AM GMT)Regarding the 50-over World Cup, David Richardson said: "There was a general view that the World Cup in its current form was too many teams, too many one-sided matches. So the idea was to have the ten best teams in the world," Richardson said. But the same objective can be achieved via a seeding system. For example, a second-tier group of say 6 or 8 teams play a qualifying round from which 2 teams advance to join the top 8 seeded teams. From there we have the 10-team competition that the ICC is now proposing. (However, it does mean that Associate country players need to be available to potentially spend a longer period of time away in the WC host country. The number of matches can be adjusted by having three or four pool groups instead of just two, which reduces the total number of round robin matches required.
Posted by Chuckworth on (September 16 2010, 05:14 AM GMT)The problem of draws in finals is a serious one, as people have noted in connection with the Sheffield Shield final. One non-purist solution would be to have a 120-over limit on the first innings only. That would allow at least 2 days plus one session for both sides to complete their second innings. Some draws would still occur but I think it would no longer be the logical strategy for the home team to purely play for a draw).