Test of will

Hats off to dear old Malcolm Speed. The outgoing ICC CEO, who has little to gain and even less to lose, has performed a U-turn any self-respecting politician would be proud of.

Having stated, without the slightest hint of equivocation, that there was no earthly chance of a window being found in the Future Tours Programme to accommodate the IPL until the current TV agreements elapse, the global interest and player unrest fired by last month’s player auction prompted a remarkably swift backtrack. Well, maybe a teensy little spare pane could be found after all. What a pity that, unlike Tony Blair, Speed seems so unconcerned about his legacy. Had he been clever – and there’s still time to prove otherwise – he would be striving like buggery to find another window. For a proper World Test Championship.

With baseball belatedly joining in last year, cricket and American football remain the only major team sports without a world crown worthy of the name. The ICC tables redressed matters to an extent, but the scoring system is about as comprehensible as a Sanskrit to an Inuit, while the inaugural Champions v The Rest showpieces drew as rapturous a critical response as the collected recordings of Little Jimmy Osmond. No, if six weeks can really be found to accommodate a Twenty20 tourney, why on earth can a similar provision not be made for the game’s highest form?

All it requires is will, flexibility and a dollop of imagination. First, for reasons too many and obvious to mention, the Test table should be split into two six-team divisions with a couple of associate additions to thicken the lower tier: Australia, England, India, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka upstairs; Bangladesh, New Zealand, West Indies and (if we really must) Zimbabwe downstairs, reinforced by the Intercontinental Cup finalists.

The leading teams would be obliged to play home-and-away five-Test series against each other over a five-year period; the lesser lights could settle for three-match rubbers. In both cases, all teams would average 10 Tests a year, reducing wear and tear. At the end of every five-year period, the bottom two sides in the top flight would join the second division teams in a three-week knockout format to decide 1) which two gain/regain Test status for the next five years, and 2) which four qualify for the eight-team World Championship, which would feature quarter-finals, semi-finals and final over a three-week period. The trick would be to play games simultaneously. Neutral venues would add further spice. That said, in the interests of fairness and due reward, the two finals would be played on the soil of the division-leading teams.

Modesty ought to forbid, but the pros, I like to think, comfortably outweigh the cons. A programme of this ilk would bring Test cricket to two more nations. It would also leave oodles of scope for grubby activities such as naked profiteering - ideally an annual Champions League-style Twenty20 event – while satisfying the broadcasters’ lust for product. It would also breathe life anew into sport’s most necessary anachronism. So what if Ireland, say, enjoy an inspiring three weeks and wind up in the same division as Australia? This is a meritocracy we’re trying to create here. The worst thing that could happen is that the Wisden and Worrell Trophies would have to be put in mothballs until Allen Stanford’s investment bears fruit. Or England are relegated. It may be a closer-run thing than many imagine.

Besides, a quinquennial World Championship would be such a perverse hoot. Forget the Olympics and all those fervent copycats. Five years is both half a decade and the customary length of the post-Stalinist life plan – ie. a tad more meaningful than the length of a US Presidential term.