Saturday, 8 February 2014

ICC meeting in Dubai discusses proposed changes to Test cricket

Michael Clarke, Alistair Cook and MS DhoniThe International Cricket Council is meeting in Dubai on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss proposed changes to Test cricket that could fundamentally alter the way the sport works.
But what are the plans? What could they mean for the future of the longest form of the game? And what are some of the interested parties saying about it all?
BBC Sport, with the help of cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew, looks behind the news releases and official statements to bring you the facts and opinions.

In a nutshell, what changes are being proposed?

Sweeping reforms to the way Test cricket operates, that's what. Based on a highly controversial 'position paper', containing the proposals and leaked to the media in the past fortnight, we know what some of those who control international cricket have come up with, including:

  • So, quite a seismic upheaval.
    The most financially robust Test-playing nations - England, Australia and India - forming a new executive board in charge of running the game. There are seven other Test-playing nations, but only one of these will sit on the board, on a rotating basis, at any one time. The new executive will have wide-ranging, potentially limitless, decision-making powers
  • All the money in Test cricket will be divvied up differently, with the bigger nations getting more of the pie. The logic? The biggest cash generators deserve access to a greater proportion of the game's profits
  • Promotion and relegation as part of a two-tier Test system. Potentially England, Australia and India would be excluded from relegation to the second division and would therefore be guaranteed lucrative Test series against each other
  • Boards will no longer be duty-bound to fulfil financially "unviable" tours or fixtures, such as the big teams visiting smaller nations. This means scrapping the Future Tours Programme, which currently guarantees regular fixtures between all full ICC members over a cycle
  • The return of the Champions Trophy instead of the inaugural World Test Championship in 2017

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