The MCC has recently warned us about the potential death of Test Cricket and have called for the introduction of a World Test Championship (WTC). As was reported on Crininfo this view has been supported by many distinguished former and current players like Steve Waugh, Martin Crowe and Rahul Dravid. I have been wondering for some time what form will this WTC take and how a system will be devised to implement this. I have come up with a format which could be implemented. However it may also seem controversial as the concept of tours as we know it now will have to end.
Historically teams toured for long durations and played long series because of the distances involved and the time taken to cover these distances. All this has changed now and travel is obviously much faster but the cricket calendar is still stuck in the early part of the last century. The WTC should consist of 12 teams divided into 2 divisions of 6. Currently there are only 9 Test playing countries since Zimbabwe is suspended, however the top ranked associates can be promoted to Test status to get the full complement of 12. After every season, the bottom 2 teams will get relegated and the top 2 teams from the second division will get promoted to division 1. The initial divisions can be made on the current ICC rankings. The associate nations can also compete to get into division 2 but more on that later.
Each team in the division needs to play every other team twice in the course of a season. This means every team plays 10 test matches in a season and the total number of test matches in a season are 30. Every team gets to play 3 matches at home and 7 matches on neutral or away grounds. Every country needs to host five test matches i.e. 3 involving the home team and 2 test matches involving neutral teams. Every touring country can play a maximum of 2 games and a minimum of 1 game in any other country.
All this might sound confusing so it is best to describe it using an example. The top 6 ranked teams are Australia, South Africa, India, England, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The WTC will start in England which means England should play 3 home test matches and host 2 more matches not involving them, at the same time no other country should play more than 2 games and everyone should play at least once. I have generated a few fixtures to illustrate this.
1. England v Australia
2. India v South Africa
3. England v Pakistan
4. Australia v Sri Lanka
5. England v India
England have played thrice, Australia and India twice and South Africa, Sri Lanka and Pakistan only once.The WTC then will move on to the next host country. Let us assume the next host country is Pakistan. Again using the same rules, that Pakistan will play 3 games at home and host 2 neutral games.
6. Pakistan v Sri Lanka
7. England v Sri Lanka
8. Pakistan v South Africa
9. South Africa v Australia
10. Pakistan v India
From Pakistan the WTC moves on to India.
11. India v Australia
12. England v South Africa
13. India v Sri Lanka
14. Australia v Pakistan
15. India v England
After India the WTC moves to Sri Lanka.
16. Sri Lanka v South Africa
17. India v Pakistan
18. Sri Lanka v England
19. South Africa v Pakistan
20. Sri Lanka v Australia
From Sri Lanka the WTC heads to Australia
21. Australia v England
22. Sri Lanka v India
23. Australia v India
24. Pakistan v England
25. Australia v South Africa
And finally the WTC heads to South Africa
26. South Africa v India
27. Pakistan v Australia
28. South Africa v England
29. Pakistan v Sri Lanka
30. South Africa v Sri Lanka
At the end of this set of fixtures every team has played the other ones twice and all teams have played a total of 10 matches. A draw/tie will fetch you 1 point, a home win will fetch you 3 points and an away/neutral win will count for 4 points. The team with the most points wins the WTC and the bottom 2 are relegated to the second division. The second division will also follow the same principles regarding fixtures, tours and points.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions. How is this scheduled? The England leg from July to the middle of August, the subcontinental leg from October to the middle of December, the Australian one from the end of December till the beginning of February and South Africa during February and March. This will also leave the players free to participate in the lucrative IPL in April and May.
What happens when two of these are relegated and say the West Indies and New Zealand are part of the top 6? The scheduling is tweaked so that the main cricket playing season of these countries is included in the schedule. I know some of you might not be happy with my set of fixtures. Why do England and Australia get to play each other at home on both occasions while India and Pakistan don't get that privilege? The fixtures will change from season to season and this set of fixtures is not the definitive list. You can easily create many other variations but the rules need to be followed and obviously more rules can be added.
What then happens to ODI cricket? Ideally I would want that limited overs cricket be only played in tournaments like the World Cup or Champions Trophy but more short tri-series can be held for the teams that are playing only 1 test match on tour. Example - Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka only played one game each on the tour of England so they can easily play an ODI tri-series during this time.These games could form the part of an ODI Championship but I'm getting ahead of myself.
It would be great if something like this is implemented. An India vs Pakistan Test match in England will be amazing at the same time an Ashes test match on a Mumbai dust bowl should be equally interesting. Existing trophies like the Border - Gavaskar or the Ashes can still be won or lost based on the head to head for a particular season.
I think the time has now come to seriously pay heed to MCC's warning to save the greatest game on the planet - Test Cricket.
mate first off i can see youve put some thought into this so well done on that, and also done in a totally neutral, unbiased way. however in places like england and australia there is still quite a demand for test matches. by only giveing 3 home tests to a team like australia would mean a test for the mcg, scg, and one between either of the waca, gabba, or adelaide oval. not enough supply for the demand someone with a economics background might say. this situation would be even worse in england and india which have a lot more international venues. but the icc needs people like you thinking how to improve the game because quite clearly they dont have a clue! i personly believe hold a wtc every 4 years, only 1 division of all 9 teams, 1 test home and 1 test away against each = 16 tests for each team and with 8 home tests each there is enough supply for each board to take the game right round their respective nation. holding neutral tests(apart from pakistan)wont help test crickets cause!
Posted by: faisal at July 20, 2009 7:52 PM
Anurag, whatever you describe above is a wonderful work and suggestion but i think its not gonna improve intrest of people to watch test cricket, why recently 2 test series are going on, one in West indies and one in sri lanka. These two series are very interesting resultful but grounds are almost empty without people and i think empty grounds situation is in every Test playing nation except England and Australia, So the reason is who in the world has time to watch 5 days of cricket continiously, that is the main reason with others. I think right now we need three big changes in test cricket to improve spectators in ground. (1) 5 day test should be reduced to 4 days (2)Day/Night tests (3) No more than 3 tests in one series and reduce the quantity of test cricket. We need these three important and impertive changes right now in test cricket i think that will improve test spectators in ground and on TV.
Posted by: RYAN at July 20, 2009 9:24 PM
The idea of the two tiered test cricket system has been bandied around for some time now believe.
From the point of view of a West Indian and a person who has seen one of the greatest test playing "countries" reduced to a mockery that is at this writing about to lose 2-0 to Bangladesh, I think that the two tiered system will give teams an incentive to play better and aim to either rise to the top of their group or move into the "better" group.
Posted by: Anurag Pandey at July 21, 2009 9:38 PM
No comments from anyone?!
Posted by: a at July 21, 2009 11:16 PM
Anurag, you describe above very good suggestions but i think test cricket is not gonna die becaz their is no World Test championship but actually its gona die becaz people's lack of interest, right now 3 test series are going on except England remaing two series in West indies and Sri lanka are big model of that, these two series are interesting and resultfull but grounds are empty, exception is England and Australia i think who in the world has time to watch 5 days of cricket and also in day time. i think right now we must need three big changes in Test cricket if we want to save Test matches 1). 5 days test should be reduced to 4 days 2). Start day/night test matches 3). Reduce the quantity of matches no more then 3 test in a series and no more then 9 test in year for one team. these are the impertive changes we need right now if we want test matches going on.
Posted by: Anurag Pandey at July 22, 2009 1:28 PM
Thanks guys for your comments!
@redneck - Yes I understand your point of view, but in Australia the major test series of the summer always has 3-4 test matches. The second series is always against the lesser opponent as is generally in Darwin or Cairns. With my format you get high quality tests every year and could potentially get to play England, India, SA almost every year.
Faisal - Agreed about your concerns but the subcontinent is obssesed with the 'World Cup'. Once more is at stake maybe the interest will increase. However day night tests should be tried and I'm sure they'll be popular.
Posted by: Terry Jones at August 1, 2009 6:34 AM
I agree with Anurag on 2 tiers of 6 teams, but disagree with single year competition. I think a 2 year competition of 6 teams, home & away, 10 series (3 tests, 2 ODI, 2 T20 per series), where points are awarded: Tests win 4pts, draw 2 pts, 1st Inn's lead 1pt, ODI win 2 pts, tie 1 pt, T20 win 1/2 pt. Max 20 pts per series ... Max 200 pts for competition.
Team could play in 3 blocks of 3-4 series over 4-5 month period with time off (9-12 months) in between blocks for ODI World Cup, T20 World Cup, Test/ODI/T20 Friendlies, IPL, etc.
At end of every 2 years:
* 1st vs 2nd in World Championship Final.
* 6th & 7th swop. 5th vs 8th for promotion/demotion.
* 12th & Intercontential Cup (IC) winner swop. 11th vs IC runner-up for promotion/demotion.
I also want to see IC expanded to be 8 teams per tier(8 matches each) where ANY country thats not test/IC already can join at the lowest tier(s).
This would mean potentially 11 tiers of IC and 2 tiers of Test Cricket.
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