ICC's proposed Test Championship a welcome change for cricket's purest format

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  • ICC's new model for Test cricket is a welcome change over the current one.

    It has been a long time coming but ICC’s new model concepts of the nine-team Test Championship and ODI league are a welcome change to cricket.

    The new Test Championship format, set to kick in from 2019, will see nine top Test sides play six series in a span of two calendar years. These six Test series will be divided into three at home with as many away.

  • ALSO READ: ODI cricket will gain the most from ICC’s new system

  • ICC unveils long-awaited Test Championship to begin in 2019

  • The Championship, which will commence at the conclusion of the ICC World Cup 2019, will see the top two sides at the end of the two-year cycle square-off against each other for the crown of the best Test team at Lord’s in London.

    There will be a minimum of two Tests per series which the option of extending them to five at the discretion of the competing nations.

    There has long been a clamour for the two-tier Test system with the advent of the T20 format which has seen fan and commercial interest surge in the shortest format of the game, sidelining Test cricket to the peripherals.

    Governing bodies across the globe have struggled to fill the coffers when it comes to the purest format of the game with the ever widening gap between the top sides and those at the bottom resulting in an alarming decline in crowd numbers for such matches.

    While the so called ‘Big Three’ along with South Africa still draw sufficient amounts of people for Tests amongst themselves, the attraction in the other games has seen a continuous slide.

    Tests between the likes of WI and Pakistan see abysmal attendances.

    Tests between the likes of WI and Pakistan see abysmal attendances.

    It is difficult to find a healthy crowd for Tests between India and the likes of New Zealand for example in the current scenario while the limited-overs games between both the sides will still show healthy numbers in both stadiums and on TV.

    If governing bodies and broadcasters continue feeling the pinch of the lack of moolah in the longer format it will only lead to the slow and eventual decay of Test cricket.

    For long has Test cricket been crying out for an antidote to arrest the decline but for some reason or the other no middle ground has been found until now.

    A Test Championship was mooted in 2013 but that fell through before implementation owing to commercial interests. A two-tier model proposed this year was eventually scrapped after opposition from teams like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka who feared being marginalised to the second division.

    Seres like the Ashes continue to draw in crowds but remain the exception.

    Seres like the Ashes continue to draw in crowds but remain the exception.

    Their fears were not misguided with the risk of being stuck in a rut of playing inferior opposition for continuous periods, an exercise to the benefit of no one.

    Test cricket is already in danger of terminal decline in countries such as West Indies and Bangladesh and having them face off against each other regularly would only hasten its downfall.

    With the new model, a middle ground has been found of sorts without having to conform to a two-tier model.

    By increasing the stakes for teams to play Tests along with a minimum amount of games per side, the ICC’s long-awaited remedial step is certainly a big boost for the under-threat format.

    Rather than waiting for the perfect solution which pleases one and all, it was highly imperative that a change in course take place before it was too late.

    T20 cricket is not going to go away for a long and interest in it will only continue to grow. A call of action was needed to retain Test cricket’s status in the modern game and the ICC’s move, though belated, was the call of the hour.

    There is no guarantee that the new concept will show immediate results or turn out to be successful after all, but it would have been a crime to not do anything at all.

    For now, we can only wait and hope that Test cricket will remain the cynosure of all formats in times to come despite the new found competition.

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