ICC announces long-awaited Test championship

TheInternational Cricket Council unveiled a long-awaited, nine-nation Testchampionship yesterday in a bid to preserve the five-day format’sstatus following the rapid growth of Twenty20.The Test league wasamong a raft of reforms agreed at an ICC board meeting in Auckland,including revamping the one-day international schedule and triallingfour-day Tests.“Our priority was to develop (a) structure that gavecontext and meaning across international cricket and particularly in theTest arena,” ICC chief David Richardson said in a statement.TheTest league will start in 2019 and see nine teams play six series overtwo years — three home and three away. It will culminate in a finalbetween the two top teams at Lord’s.The ICC has argued for yearsthat a Test championship is needed to boost the format’s popularity ascrowds and TV viewers flock to the fast-paced, big-hitting Twenty20version of the game.It first appointed a committee to examine theconcept back in 1998. But squabbling over formats, and fears that somenations will be disadvantaged, have twice stymied efforts to launch aleague structure since 2010.“Bringing context to bilateral cricketis not a new challenge, but this is the first time a genuine solutionhas been agreed on,” ICC chairman Shashank Manohar said.The ninenations in the competition are Australia, Bangladesh, England, India,New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and West Indies.CricketAustralia chief James Sutherland called it “a really significant momentin international cricket history”. “It’s a tremendous step forward. TheICC and member countries have made a strong statement aboutinternational cricket and how we want to make sure it remains at theforefront of the three forms of the game.”The ICC will hope it’s acase of third time lucky for the Test championship after two previousattempts failed without a ball being bowled in anger.A version wassupposed to begin in 2013 but was scrapped because existing commercialarrangements meant the ICC was obliged to stage the one-day ChampionsTrophy instead.Then plans for a June 2017 launch were scuppered whensome of the game’s powerbrokers, including India, objected to aproposed two-tier league system, saying smaller teams would bedisadvantaged. There was also a reported lack of interest from television companies.Puristsview Test cricket as the pinnacle of the sport but it has struggled,particularly in Asia, as lucrative T20 competitions such as the IndianPremier League caught the public’s imagination. A recent innovationdesigned to reverse the trend is the introduction of day-night Testmatches, which moves playing sessions to more spectator-friendly hoursafter dark.The Auckland meeting also agreed to experiment withfour-day Tests, with South Africa and Zimbabwe set to trial the first inDecember. Richardson emphasised that the shorter Test matches wereonly being trialled and their results would not be part of the new Testchampionship.“Throughout the discussions about the future of Testcricket it became clear... we must also consider alternatives and trialinitiatives that may support the future viability of Test cricket,” hesaid.The ICC will also establish a 13-nation one-day internationalleague starting in 2020, with results counting towards World Cupqualification.It argued that the league structure would give addedcontext to Test and ODI fixtures, rather than the current system ofbilateral series which have little bearing on other teams.