CENTURION, South Africa, (Reuters) – A proposal for a world test cricket championship could be discussed in February, International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Haroon Lorgat said yesterday.
“The test championship is best described as a work in progress,” Lorgat told Reuters.
“We are aspiring to create some sort of test championships model and a working group was set up at the last chief executives’ meeting on Dec. 1 in Dubai. They will put together concepts for a test championship and we hope to consider a proposal at our next meeting in February.”
The ICC cricket committee, made up of former and current players, administrators and umpires, has called for a world test championship to revive flagging interest in the longest version of the game.
ICC president David Morgan said earlier yesterday that test cricket needed to break with tradition to maintain interest.
“I’d be surprised if we don’t see day-night test cricket within the next two years — surprised and disappointed,” Morgan told reporters in London.
Lorgat said he was hoping to see a reduction in the amount of cricket played from next year.
“It’s important to get the volume of cricket right, and this will challenge our minds in 2010. It is always difficult because some fixtures are by the ICC, some by bilateral arrangement and then you have all the domestic fixtures. But we all need to work together to get the appropriate balance.”
He said test cricket would remain at the pinnacle of the game.
“One of our successes this year has been to bring test cricket back into focus. It helped that India gained the number-one ranking because that created a lot of interest and, with South Africa challenging strongly, it’s very promising for test cricket.”
