World Test championship not possible: Dalmiya

A panel of five selectors namely Ian Chappell, Sunil Gavaskar, Tony Greig, Asif Iqbal and Mike Procter will select the Asian XI and the Rest of the World XI in New Delhi on March 7. The moderator for this committee will be Ravi Shastri. The two teams will play a one day match at Dhaka on April 7 as part of the Cricket Week celebrations. This was disclosed by the President of the International Cricket Conference Jagmohan Dalmiya at a press conference here on Thursday.

Dalmiya also informed that a panel of nine former cricketers will also select a `dream one day team' on the basis of the performance of the players since the inception of the shorter version of the game in 1971. The nine selectors for the `Dream Team' will be Sir Gary Sobers (West Indies), Dickie Bird (England), Barry Richards (South Africa), Bishen Singh Bedi (India), Mushtaq Mohammed (Pakistan), Duleep Mendis (Sri Lanka), Neil Harvey (Australia), John Reid (New Zealand) and Andy Pycroft (Zimbabwe). The moderator for this panel would also be Ravi Shastri.

The ICC President added that the winner of the match between the Rest of the World XI and the Asian XI will get $30,000. "There will also be other individual incentives. Also all the players will be paid their match fees," he added.

Explaining the reasons for forming the `Dream Team' which will be called the 'All Stars' Best XI', the ICC president said, "To form a Test team of the century would be difficult as one would then have to judge the performance of the players only on statistics. However, as far as the one day game goes, most of the players have been seen in action in the last 30 years or so. So it would be easier to select such a team."

When asked whether the selection procedure of the three teams would be shown live, Dalmiya said that it would not be possible to do so. "However, the entire programme will be recorded and shown on various channels. The programme will be recorded by TWI. However, a number of channels like Zee, Sony, Sky Sports, Fox Sports, ESPN, Star Sports, Caribbean TV and a number of other prime channels of the world have expressed their desire to show the various functions of Cricket Week."

Dalmiya also informed that at the moment it was not possible for the ICC to start the World Test Championship. "The problem is that we are not getting the 75 to 90 day slot needed to host such a tournament. However, we have more or less formulated a programme where each country will play one another on `a home and away' basis for the next 10 years."

Regarding Test status to Bangladesh, Dalmiya said that an inspection team from the ICC had visited the country. "We had asked the Bangladesh Cricket Board to start a tournament where matches would be of three days. We had also asked them to prepare more than one ground for hosting international matches. Other than that, we had also asked the them to play international matches. They have more or less fulfilled all the requirements. We are waiting for the report of the inspection team and the matter will be tabled at the ICC meeting in June. If everything is satisfactory they will get the necessary status."