Martin Crowe's Test Championship

Martin Crowe has released a plan to "save Test cricket".

It has the backing of the MCC, which will present it to the ICC in November.

In short, the top 8 sides would contest a knockout tournament each year.

Each quarter final would be played as a series of 3, 4 or 5 tests. If the series is drawn the highest-ranked team progresses to the semis.

The semis would then be played as one-off tests in England. Once again, a draw would result in the highest-ranked team progressing to the final.

A one-off final would then be held at Lord's with the highest-ranked team being declared champions in the case of a draw.

Over the course of the cycle each side would host an equal number of quarter finals. Crowe also suggests that semi-finalists could arrange to play their semi-final over a series if they are scheduled to meet before the final.

It's not bad if you ask me. It gives us a champion each year while making the ICC rankings mean something. It's certainly worth considering and probably needs some fine-tuning.

Great idea, and very practical to add even more cricket with the current schedules.

I think we ought to be able to fit the Semi-Finals in over here in late April, and the Final in early October.

Should work a treat . . . cricket is now the game for all seasons in the UK - just ask the Windies, or indeed anyone who has been to the JAMODI series over the last couple of weeks.

You could feasibly have a team win the championship without winning a test

If by "save" he means "destroy" then it sounds like a great idea.

The thought of no Ashes is bad enough but if this proposal goes through then the only test series' that England will be playing will be against the likes of Bangladesh (in the quarter final) seeing as the semis and final are one off matches.

vilkrang wrote:If by "save" he means "destroy" then it sounds like a great idea.

The thought of no Ashes is bad enough but if this proposal goes through then the only test series' that England will be playing will be against the likes of Bangladesh (in the quarter final) seeing as the semis and final are one off matches.

Vilkrang, I think you've misinterpreted Crowe's plan.

Test cricket would continue as normal with the Ashes being scheduled just as it is now. It's just that each of the top 8 sides would play one test series each year that doubled as a Test Championship quarter final. All other tests would still have meaning because they'd count towards the rankings (like they do now) and those rankings would be used to split drawn knockout matches/series.

The semis and finals would then be played over two weeks in England in early September.

I think the idea is that more often than not the quarter-finals would be "lesser" series like Australia v Sri Lanka or England v New Zealand. These series would benefit from having greater meaning. Classic series like England v Australia or India v Pakistan could hold their own as stand alone contests with the added bonus that they count towards a more meaningful rankings system.

spangler wrote:You could feasibly have a team win the championship without winning a test

Yes, but they'd have to be the number one ranked side in the world, in which case they'd have won plenty of tests in the meantime.

not very interesting. one-off tests for semis and finals and that too only in england. better to work out a 4 year test championship with proper test series determining the winner at the end of it. we have an odi world champion team every 4 years, why cant it be the same for tests?

personally i think test championships will never work out, not without destroying the flow of a proper test series. no team can play more than 4 test series in a year. at most a test match league table is a possibility

I've never understood crickets need to be 'global'

If countries aren't strong enough or if there is no support for test cricket then stop playing it and play ODI's or T20 to your hearts content.

I'm perfectly happy with 5 test series against Aus, SA, IND annually and playing the rest at ODI's.

HTF can you call Aus v SL or NZ v Eng a "lesser" series?

JKLever wrote:I've never understood crickets need to be 'global'

If countries aren't strong enough or if there is no support for test cricket then stop playing it and play ODI's or T20 to your hearts content.

I'm perfectly happy with 5 test series against Aus, SA, IND annually and playing the rest at ODI's.

Fark off. That can never be allowed to happen. Maybe England should just give up ODI and 20/20 cricket and play tests against everyone instead.

Sounds like a plan!

JKLever wrote:Sounds like a plan!

On 2nd thoughts that would mean the only team we can occasionally beat would be off the fixture list...........

JKLever wrote:I've never understood crickets need to be 'global'

If countries aren't strong enough or if there is no support for test cricket then stop playing it and play ODI's or T20 to your hearts content.

I'm perfectly happy with 5 test series against Aus, SA, IND annually and playing the rest at ODI's.

I assume the tests against SA & IND would just be for warm ups and experimentation.

DJ_Smerk wrote:HTF can you call Aus v SL or NZ v Eng a "lesser" series?

Australia lost to Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka in 1999. It was annoying but not the end of the world.

Australia lost to India in India in 2001 and it was treated like Armageddon.

England beat New Zealand in England in 2008. It was nice, but not considered anything special.

England beat Australia in England in 2009. England will be celebrating the result for the next 18 months.

Quite simply, series against New Zealand and Sri Lanka are considered lesser series. Is this fair considering Sri Lanka's strength over the last decade? No. But it's reality. They just don't capture the imagination like a series between two of the Big 4 (India, England, Australia and South Africa).

Something needs tobe done, but not on an annual basis, or even every two years.

Crowe is a bit of a tool.

Crowe bar?

Lorgat - "Only England and India are holding up the Test championship"

Qunts.

BanIndiaEngland.

BanIndigoland

Ban der snatch.

Brass Monkey wrote:Lorgat - "Only England and India are holding up the Test championship"

Qunts.

BanIndiaEngland.

A BCCI official as an arrogant turd? Whodathunkit.