Mumbai: The suggestion to break Test cricket into two tiers – Division 1 and 2 – has done the rounds for over a decade, but Australian newspaper ‘The Age’ reports that the matter is slated to be discussed between International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman Jay Shah and executives from Cricket Australia (CA) and England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) this month.
If these discussions prove fruitful, Test cricket could become an even more closed group than the current arrangement under the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. The proposed idea places the top seven nations – Australia, England, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – in Division 1 and others – Bangladesh, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Ireland – in Division 2.
More importantly, this would facilitate the Big Three (Australia, England and India) to play each other more frequently; that’s twice in three years, whereas under the present arrangement they meet every two years.
The matter was taken up at ICC level in 2016, but was shot down by many boards, including the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). At the time, BCCI’s clout in ICC was based on its benevolence, allowing the India team to tour smaller nations and boost their balance sheet.
With time, Test cricket’s commercial appeal further diminished outside the Big Three nations. Cricket South Africa openly prioritised it’s T20 league by shrinking its Test calendar. That this formula – winning short, sharp series – worked in their favour to make the World Test Championship (WTC) final over England and India, who lost steam their five-Test series in Australia 1-3, explains everything about the make-do WTC arrangement.
On the other end of the scale, the just-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy series saw record attendance and new viewership records. The Boxing Day Test at Melbourne broke all records with 3,73,691 spectators attending. Australia’s Seven Network released data on Monday that their free-to-air coverage of the series reached a record 13.4 million people in Australia. The Ashes continues to remain a big draw in both England and Australia.
If two-tier Test cricket sees the light of day, the WTC idea could come to a premature end, after the 2025-27 cycle.
Despite losing money by the day, many cricket boards push to retain the Test-playing nation tag because of the financial structure of the ICC Board where the 12 Test nations get the major share of the revenue pie (almost 89%) while the 90-plus Associate nations take home what is left. Whether reworking the Test calendar would impact the revenue model will be watched.
BCCI, which will see a new secretary take over this week, is likely to approach the issue afresh. ICC did not offer any formal comment on the issue when contacted.
