The face of Test cricket "could be altered drastically" this week with Int'l Cricket Council member nations "on the verge of giving the green light to a new league structure that would culminate in a World Test Championship," according to Chris Barrett of THE AGE. Major changes to the Test and one-day int'l game will be discussed at a meeting of national CEOs in New Zealand on Wednesday, "with the proposals tipped to be signed off at a subsequent ICC board meeting on Friday." Chief among them are "well-advanced" plans for a nine-nation Test championship that in its first edition would be run over a cycle of two years from '19, leading to the two top-placed teams playing off in a final at Lord's. The ODI format "would also be transformed into a 13-nation league running over a three-year cycle," contributing to World Cup qualification with the leading teams also contesting a playoff at its conclusion. Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland and Chair David Peever have been "key drivers of the initiatives, which have been in the works for several years." Sutherland said, "I don't think people have quite cottoned on to how significant this is. Context is one thing but you're also creating structure in such a way that you no longer have games without meaning. They are all part of a league championship. There is a story, there is a narrative behind it all" (THE AGE, 10/8).
ON THE CLOCK: In London, Richard Edwards reported the "clock is ticking on Test cricket’s future" -- and Federation of Int'l Cricketers' Associations Chair Tony Irish believes "major surgery is required, rather than endless tinkering around the edges." A trial of a four-day Test in the Boxing Day match between South Africa and Zimbabwe is "likely to be high on the agenda." That will take place at the same time as the Melbourne Cricket Ground Ashes Test -- a match that is "likely to be played out in front of over 90,000 people." Irish believes it is "the context of the Test match game rather than the scheduling that needs to be addressed." He said, "The Ashes is the iconic Test series because it has tradition and narrative -- it really means something. That’s only the Ashes. I don’t think that having a close series or a great series this winter will do anything for Test cricket elsewhere in the world" (INDEPENDENT, 10/8).
