The International Cricket Council (ICC) has approved the proposal of a Test Championship and an International One-Day League The test series will have nine teams playing six series over a span of two years, whereas the fifty over match league will a roadway to the ICC World Cup.
The nine teams will play six series out of which three matches will be played on home soil and the rest will be played on the venues decided which will culminate on a Test championship final.
“Throughout the discussions about the future of Test cricket it became clear that we must also consider alternatives and trial initiatives that may support the future viability of Test cricket,” Dave Richardson, ICC’s chief executive said.
The test competition is being introduced to attract more viewers and bring back the lost interest of the game. The championship which will get underway after the 2019 T20 World Cup is also an attempt to reduce one-sided affairs.
The test series will feature at least two tests and a maximum of five matches and it will be scheduled to last five days. The dates and venues will be finalized soon and the final is scheduled to play in England.
Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, and Ireland will be excluded from the Test championship initially but the introduction of the four-day test will give them a lot of boosts.
The ICC ODI League will be a direct pathway for ICC’s mega event and it will be played by the 12 full members and the current ICC World Cricket League Championship winner. In the first edition of the league, each team will play four home and four away series each comprising of three One-dayers moving to all teams playing each other from the second cycle onwards.
“I would like to congratulate our Members on reaching this agreement and putting the interests of the development of the game first. Bringing context to bilateral cricket is not a new challenge, but this is the first time a genuine solution has been agreed on. This means fans around the world can enjoy international cricket knowing every game counts and in the case of the ODI league, it counts towards qualification for the ICC Cricket World Cup,” ICC chairman Shashank Manohar was quoted saying.
