Cricket without India? Worthless
A comprehensive structural overhaul, dividing Tests into a two-tier system, granting even more power and control to the BCCI (as well as the ECB and Cricket Australia)... The ICC's latest plans for the greater good of the game have raised more eyebrows th
20-Jan-2014
A comprehensive structural overhaul, dividing Tests into a two-tier system, granting even more power and control to the BCCI (as well as the ECB and Cricket Australia)... The ICC's latest plans for the greater good of the game have raised more eyebrows than logical points. Stephen Brenkley, writing for the Independent, puts his spin on the whole issue.
Sixteen countries will be split into two groups of eight, the top tier playing Test matches and the bottom in the so-called Inter-Continental Cup. The winner of the bottom group in an eight-year cycle could be promoted to the top group, which would be less rather than more structured, but India, Australia and England could never be relegated. The impression among England's administrators is that there was no other option. One might have been to tell India to that the other nine nations would cast India adrift but it was a financial risk. That would have left England as the richest nation but the truth is that without India the international game is virtually worthless.