A Fitting Case For A World Test Championship (1 Feb 1997)

1 February 1997

A fitting case for world Test championship

By Lateef Jafri

ON return from Australia after outplaying the home side and outwitting the Caribbean cavaliers and with the World Series cup in his possession captain Wasim Akram expressed the wish that there should be a Test World Cup among the full members of the International Cricket Council.

Among the strong cricketing nations only South Africa was unrepresented at the Australian World Series venture, fulfilling their own commitment initially in India and latterly at home grounds. Wasim, after piloting the country to deserving and desired victories against Australia and West Indies, was happy that the challenge of two formidable forces in global cricket was courageously met and brushed aside on an alien soil and thought that time had arrived for the competition to be raised to a higher plane Q a five-day tussle in Test matches to decide ``the real and genuine`` champion of the world. Certainly he had no format ready but he backed the idea of a bigger extravaganza in the style and manner of the 21-year limited-overs World Cup, which was launched in the summer of 1975 at Lord`s with a match between India and England. This was to be the inaugural contest for the one-day honours of the world, eventually clinched by the powerful West Indians. The last championship or the title (if the latter connotation is to be taken as correct) was claimed by Sri Lanka. Every country and critic had to accept the leap forward they had made and the high position they had attained in the cricketing world by their mettlesome players, fighters to the core on the South Asian fields. But ironically enough the World Cup winners were brought down from their high pedestal just a fortnight later in Singapore by Pakistan in the Singer Cup. However, the Lahore final decided the champions of nascent cricket, as acknowledged by the ICC. Will the representatives of the ICC move forward to consider and discuss in detail the Test World Cup plan, if at all it can be taken out of the Lord`s cold storage. Wasim Akram said it would be a good change (from one-dayers) and people would know which is the best team in the world in this strenuous and rigorous five-day contest.

Mark Taylor, after his spinners Michael Bevan and Shane Warne had baffled the West Indian at Adelaide and the Australians had won the rubber and kept the Frank Worrell Trophy, had laid claim to be the new kings of world Test cricket. He dismissed the view that the West Indies were giants of Test cricket. Certainly if two captains, one having grabbed the one-day World Series Cup and the other having lifted the coveted Worrell Trophy, emphasise the need and necessity of a tussle among the Test playing countries the proposal cannot be ignored.

World famous medium-pacer and all-rounder Sir Richard Hadlee of New Zealand had recently come out with the suggestion of Super Test or world championship of Tests. He thought that day by day the limited-overs competition was getting so much encouragement that interest in Test matches is waning. Nevertheless, the litmus test to determine the strength and weakness of national lineups was the five-day enterprise. A global contest involving the nine Test-playing countries would not only attract the marketing multinationals and sponsoring mega-industries but would give considerable boost to Test cricket and prove once again that it were the five-day battles which settle the cricket championship and not the one-day spectacles, now numbering over hundred in one calendar year.

The proposal had also been voiced in the recent past by Clive Lloyd, Hansie Cronje, Ian Chappell and Sunil Gavaskar among other renowned figures of the game. However, at the country level it was Dr Ali Bacher of the United Cricket Board of South Africa who strongly supported the proposal of Tests World Cup. Hadlee, in his suggestion, had detailed a points system for the matches and the players. The venues had to be in large numbers in diverse countries according to the New Zealand legend.

However just to remind the cricket fans it may be mentioned that former Chief Executive of Pakistan`s Board, Arif Ali Abbasi, had prepared a thorough and detailed proposal on the subject and despatched it to the International Cricket Council headquartered at Lord`s before its annual representative meeting. Abbasi was shunted out of office before he could brief the ICC delegates on Pakistan`s proposal and lobby the idea for endorsement. The former cricket supremo wanted Pakistan to be the central place for staging the matches. He was confident of getting the sponsorship on a major scale for such a big venture. Thirtynine matches were played during the fifth World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 1992. The South Asian-organised sixth edition of the venture had 37 ties to be arranged. If group-wise Test matches are to be gone through in a round-robin style perhaps not more than 20 matches will be competed. The whole idea could have been given a practical shape after endorsement from the ICC delegates, which was not difficult considering that South Africa was prepared to stand by Pakistan and Sri Lanka and India would have given support to the new cricket plan as Jagmohan Dalmia was being backed for the top ICC post by Pakistan. The lobbying at Lord`s would have paid the dividends and more delegates would have lined up with Pakistan.

Regrettably, the new PCB Chief Executive, Majid Khan, who attended last June`s annual meeting of ICC, was lukewarm to the idea of world championship of Tests and did not do the effort needed at Lord`s. The proposal was talked out. On return the famed cricketer pointed to logistics and sponsorship problems and told the sports scribes that the idea was impracticable as far as Pakistan was concerned. Countries like Australia, South Africa and India may be successful in such a big project.

As the Chief Executive pointed out last June, the staging of such a big gala as the Test World Cup was well nigh impossible in this country with the multi-sided problems that it has, it is better to cite an example from history.

It was in the summer of 1912 that triangular Test matches were played in England among Australia, South Africa and England. At that time there were only three contestants as they were the countries exchanging visits for Test duels. All the encounters were arranged at England`s venues and ultimately after the league tussles Australia came second to England with South Africa, then a weak conglomerate, finishing last.

England with such legends as Hobbs, Spooner, Fry, Woolley and Warner were solid in batting. The bowling had the pace of S. F. Barnes and F. R. Foster and the superb tricks of Rhodes, Woolley and Hearne. It was an unbeatable side. Australia were not at full strength. England, with one of the strongest squads ever, duly won the triangular series. The experiment was a grand success.

In modern times when facilities have so much expanded and the chances of sponsorship and marketing have become so much bright there is little doubt that a world championship of Tests, if launched, will attract huge crowds and achieve the desired results financially.

Now that the ICC meeting is not very far away one expects the PCB to put forward the proposal before the delegates and get their endorsement. Cricket will get considerable boost in the country. More modern facilities in cricket centres may be provided. Besides it will be a unique venture which will make the coffers of the PCB helftier and heavier.

Source :: Dawn (https://xiber.com/dawn)