Cricket Committee also suggests using 2 new balls for only first 25 overs of ODIs
NEW DELHI: In its bid to promote Test and ODI formats, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has come up with key recommendations which could see every World Test Championship (WTC) series having minimum three Tests, and two balls being used for only the first 25 overs in ODIs.
TOI has learnt that the ICC’s cricket committee came up with these suggestions recently at the board meetings in Dubai.
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The committee has also suggested that host nations must try to accommodate more day-night Test matches when drawing fixtures for home season in the next cycle.
Sources said ICC strongly feels that there should be a minimum of three Tests if a series is played in the WTC from the next cycle.
“Some countries like South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka mostly play just two Test series. Only India, England and Australia play long Test series. That doesn’t help in promoting Test cricket and the point distribution becomes very unfair. The recommendations are targeted at wiping out such disparities,” an ICC source told TOI.
The ICC cricket committee is headed by former India captain Sourav Ganguly and also consists of former players Mahela Jayawardena, VVS Laxman, Shaun Pollock, Daniel Vettori and Roger Harper besides BCCI secretary and soon-to-be ICC chairman Jay Shah.
As for day-night Tests, Cricket Australia is the only board which hosts pink-ball Tests regularly during its home season. BCCI has not hosted a pink-ball Test in two years.
“The ICC committee feels the pink-ball Tests have brought more people into the stadiums. Recently, one saw very poor turnouts in Pakistan. The three pink-ball Tests in India sold more tickets than usual. Test-playing nations must be encouraged to schedule more pink-ball Tests,” the source said.
Two balls for only first 25 overs in ODI matches
Another suggestion has been to have two balls only for the first 25 overs of ODIs. After that only one ball will be used. It has been widely debated that playing with two balls in ODIs has taken bowlers out of the game in the last decade as the balls remain hard for the batters to keep hitting through the line.
“The recommendation will be sent to the captains. A consensus must be achieved on this. But this looks the best option to bring reverse swing and finger spinners back into the game,” the source said.
ICC chairman’s tenure increased to three years
In a major development, the ICC board has decided to change the tenure of ICC chair and independent director to two terms of three years from two-year tenures.
That means Shah, who is slated to take over as ICC chair, can hold the post for six years. Shah is slated to go into mandatory cooling-off period in BCCI next year.
