The proposed World Test Championship (WTC), which, sadly, may not see the light of the day, was a well-meaning attempt to provide a global showpiece for the five-day game.

Cricket’s world governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), wanted to stage the first edition of the event in England in 2017, with the world’s top four Test sides vying for the inaugural trophy.

The ICC felt a tournament such as the WTC would help give a boost to the five-day game, which is struggling to attract crowds outside of showpieces such as the Ashes contests between England and Australia. But as it appears, the global body now seems to be gradually realising that the WTC may not work, financially at least.

So, what next? There have been various alternative suggestions – like an even more ambitious eight-team format, to the introduction of two divisions with promotion and relegation.

It doesn’t make sense to scrap the idea altogether. Instead, the ICC should think of something like, say, a World Test Challenge – where there would be a set cut-off date every year and the team in second place in the rankings at that point would earn the right to challenge the leaders for the title of ‘World Test Champions’.

As an annual fixture, it would have a chance to develop greater momentum than a four-team play-off every four years. It would run the risk of being stymied by bad weather, or a dead pitch, but perhaps a reserve day could be set aside?

Even the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), owners of London’s Lord’s cricket ground and the global guardian of the sport’s laws or rules, feel this could be one of the options. The world cricket committee of MCC – which has former England captain Mike Brearley as chairman and include India’s Rahul Dravid, Australia’s Steve Waugh, South Africa’s Shaun Pollock and ICC chief executive David Richardson as its members – thinks even a cut-down championship featuring just the two top-ranked Test teams would be better than abandoning the concept completely.

“The MCC World Cricket Committee is a strong supporter of the proposed World Test Championship, and urges the ICC to ensure that such a tournament – or at least a final – takes place in 2017 and beyond,” the MCC said in a statement following its two-day meeting in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

Whatever, it should of no doubt that there remains a major appetite for the skills and character that only Test cricket teases out, wherever the game is played. Surely it should not be beyond the wit of the game’s great and good, and even the ICC board, to come up with a format that would allow the best Test team in the world to be recognised on a fitting stage.