Test World Championship concept probably scrapped

http://content.cricinfo.com/ci-icc/content/current/story/394478.html

Hopes for Test world championship fade

Alex Brown

March 9, 2009

The proposed world championship of Test cricket is in danger of being scrapped, with India and England expressing serious reservations about the Cricket Australia-backed concept. The championship format had been viewed by some as a viable alternative to the Future Tours Program - which expires in 2012 - with a points system, finals series and, ultimately, trophy presentation to add context and structure to the five-day game.

But concerns over television revenue have placed the concept in jeopardy. The timing and logistical complexities of scheduling nine sets of home-and-away Test series into four-year cycles prompted fears from India and England that lucrative bi-lateral arrangements could be compromised. The issues were raised at the recent chief executives' committee meeting in Johannesburg, which concluded with respective boards being asked to give further thought to how Test cricket might be formatted after 2012.

"It is not final, but there have been some reservations," said IS Bindra, the ICC's principal advisor, who has been vocal supporter of the championship format. "Those two boards (India and England) agreed that there needed to be some refinements and modifications made. They are the financial powerhouses of the game and they obviously have huge television rights deals at stake."

Sad.

I bet if it was a proposal for a t20 world championship with regular fixtures on a rolling basis, the Poms and BCCI would be creaming their (and each others) jeans along with CA in orgiastic orgasmic expectation.

Assholes.

meh. Would take farqin ages.

Especially on roads.

It's a great idea, but would never work.

Too much to fit in with the current Test structure if it was going to be a single championship.

Way to do it in my opinion would be to create a second tier, and have 6 teams in each, with promotion and relegation at the end of each rolling 4 year period.

That way they could fit the whole championship and all other commitments in, whilst leaving room for individual nations to arrange some series outside of the official championship if they wished.

E.G. With England inevitably sliding into Division 2, both them and and the Aussies would still be keen for an Ashes series. This would still be possible, would still count with Test status, but would fall outside of the actual world championship.

Is that Division 2 as in English football?

In England's case, probably.

So de facto division 5...