Is Test Cricket Destined To Die?

By Gaurang
March 13 2008

One solution to the declining interest and importance of Test cricket among the average fan, that I have been advocating for a long time, is the scrapping of the ridiculous rolling Test championship and Ten Year ICC Test calendar and its replacing it with a biennial Test championship.

It is particularly peculiar that the ICC decided that unlike any other major competitive sport Test cricket did not deserve a clear cut Champion based on an intelligible competition, with a fixed period of “Champion” status. Instead it determined what the fans were interested in was a rolling “Championship” based on an ongoing series of matches where one team is designated as the “Champion” for an undetermined period of time, which can be half a decade or half a week, and is determined not solely by the performance of the “Champion” team but by the cricket schedule and the form of the other Test teams in the world. To the modern sports fan this is completely insane. And it makes the stereotyping that other sports, such as baseball, use to deride cricket, as an arcane pursuit played by fuddy duddies who can’t determine a winner after five days of competition, or 5 years of competition, as the case may be, seem to be quite appropriate.

What is needed is an immediate Scrapping of the current 10 year plan. In its place I suggest a simple biennial Championship. The proposed Championship would take geographical realities and traditional rivalries into consideration. First of all the number of Test teams needs to be culled to eight, and Bangladesh and Zimbabwe should not be part of the Championship.

Then divide the teams around the world into two zones North Zone: England, India, Pakistan, West Indies South Zone: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka Have teams WITHIN each zone play each other once at home and away in 3 match series, for a total of 18 Test matches each. The top in each zone can be given a Zonal trophy which would be akin to the League penant in major league baseball, giving that team Zonal bragging rights.

At the end of the 18 Test "Season" the top two team in each Zone will play in a playoff. The playoffs will consist of a 5 Test match series with the Champion Team of each Zone getting home advantage. This means the North Champion plays the South runner-up at Home and the South Champion plays the North runner up at Home. Then the two winners of these two series play a 5 Test Final series. The team with the better record gets home advantage again. In all playoff games, i.e. not the first 18 league Test matches a 'dead rubber' rule applies... so when one team has won 3 matches the Series is OVER.

The benefit of this plan is that over a period of two years every country plays a minimum of 18 matches and a maximum of 28 matches (if each 5 Test playoff series goes the full distance)... this works out to between 9 and 14 Tests per year. This is a work load that all players would be willing to shoulder, especially as each and every match would have great meaning and would be eagerly followed not just by the fans of the respective teams but by other teams’ fans too. Of course the biggest benefit would be that a Test Champion would be crowned every two years and would hold the Crown for at least the next two years. This would make Test cricket so much more attractive to the non aficionado, while allowing the die hard to still enjoy the game fully.

There could be a similar tournament organized for the teams one rung below the top level, i.e. Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Kenya, UAE, USA, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, etc... and the top team from that group can be given entry into the top level with the bottom ranking team from the elite group dropping down. These lower level games would be accorded First Class but not Test status. In combination with the current Full World Cup every four years, and a Twenty20 World cup every couple of years such a Test Championship would enhance the game immensely.