With ICC’s policy of giving test status of minnows like BANG and poor standard of ZIM test team , people dont really want to watch test cricket if one of the team happens to be one of these.
Also it makes it easier for players to makes records by playing against weaker side.This doesnt do justice to records made by players of past who had to play quality sides most of the times. On top of this ICC is planning to grant test status to some more teams in near future so as to make Cricket popular in other countries.
So…To take care of it Saurav Ganguly suggested to have 2 Tier Test syste. Looks like now its gaining momentum. ICC wants to consider it .Today even Shane Warne joined Saurav and suggested that it is time to do it.
Idea is to have a group of six or seven top test playing country like AUS,ENG,WI,IND,PAK,SA,NZL and then 2nd teir consisting of teams like ZIM,BANG, KEN and any new edition like Holland,Ireland or UAE. And move teams from lower group to upper group and vice versa based on some performance criteria.
What do you think about it?
How many teams should be moved from one group to another? How often?
I think this whole idea of "demoting" Zimbabwe needs careful thought. I have no problems kicking out a now-useless Zim from test status, but this should be based on objective criteria. ICC should come out with criteria on how teams will be able to maintain their Tier 1 Test Status, and if teams fall below a certain level, they will be relegated to Tier 2 (or in simple terms their test status will be taken away). Define-the-rules-before-playing-the-game is what I am saying.
Oye!!!! to phir aa gaya Kenya kay khilaf bolney. :p
Overall a good idea even though it needs to be considered further as to how do you promote and relegate teams and how often. Also, Zimbabwe has been a victim of some internal politics otherwise the team was quite strong and upto test standard. Say Zim was in the first tier when this disruption took place. You could not immediately relegate it. Depending on how many points it had, it might take time before it went down. Maybe a better idea would be two tier with new test teams staying in the second tier for a certain period before moving to the premier tier and that also after winning a few matches against teams from the upper tier.
An idea which certainly merits further discussion.
F&B Kenya ka peecha chor dey warna bauhat pachtaye ga. :)
Good point Faisal. This is the problem that I have with this plan. What happens if we have a rule that one team from top group will go down and one team from bottom team comes up every 2 years. Will ICC be able to afford teams like India,Pak and SL to go to bottom group for next 2 years knowing that cricket in liek religion in those country and this can simply kill cricket in those countries. or can they afford to send WI to bottom group and thus put last nail in WI crickets.Anyway cricket is dying there?
Coming back to ZIM issue. I think they should be stripped of status. Not because of present condition but because they dont have a very good first class cricket structure there and they cant keep producing god players.Where as Bangladesh has this advantage they have a very good structure and they will improve sooner than later. But then this is just another discussion.
With so many leading cricketers clamouring for a two-tier format for Test cricket, the International Cricket Council may finally put such a system in place. According to a report in SuperSport, a South African sports website, Dave Richardson, the ICC’s general manager, is currently presiding over discussions on a proposal to restrict Test cricket to eight teams, while the next two rungs would consist of 12 teams, split into two divisions of six each.
Teams in the elite group would be required to play each other in home and away series – comprising of two or three Tests each – which would ensure that a full round of Test series takes not more than three years instead of the current five, with every team playing 14 Tests a year.
The report also says that the second-division matches would be four-day games, played on a home-and-away basis. The winner of the second division would then take on the team which finished last in the elite group in a one-off Test. Victory in that match would promote the second-division winner into the elite group. So, as per current standings in the ICC Test Championship table, West Indies will be battling Zimbabwe or Bangladesh to avoid relegation.
For teams not good enough to make it to the top 14 but still harbouring hopes of climbing the rungs, there is also a proposal to include a third tier as well. As with the second division, the team topping the third tier will also get an opportunity to move up the ladder with a play-off against the wooden spooners of the second division.
An ICC spokesman said: “Malcolm Speed [the ICC’s chief executive] announced a review of the structure of international cricket in June 2003. This review is on-going and will not be completed for several months. Until it has been completed it is impossible to speculate what the outcomes or recommendations will be.”
The need to separate the top teams from the rest has been felt especially strongly of late, with Zimbabwe weakened considerably by the absence of 15 of their best players and Bangladesh struggling to make an impression.
Looks like something is going to eveolve soon. The standard of cricket displayed by Zimbabwe and Bangladesh leaves a lot to be desired and also the proposed system will encourage the new teams to develop before playing the big boys. The way Pak cricket is going I wont be surprised if it ends up in one of hte lower tiers. :(
Fantastic idea. We need the top 8 teams to play each other, and then have a lower teiir for the banglas and co (Zimbo, Kenyan ect) who can at the end of a 4 year period have a play off for the last place in the elite panel of 8 test sides.
This is the only way to ensure the integrity of Test Cricket.