Two tier

[bwildered]

International Cricket Council (ICC) chair Jay Shah is set to meet his Cricket Australia counterpart Mike Baird and England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) boss Richard Thompson later this month, with sources saying proposals for two tiers of the World Test Championship will be discussed.
The plans could see India, Australia, England, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand in tier one, with West Indies, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe making up the second tier.
It would be introduced after the current Future Tours Programme ends in 2027.


 What?s it take to move between the two. Took us many years to compete with Windies.  !

[dazedpenguin]

I think it's a terrible idea and devalues the marquee series. Remember when The Ashes was played in 2013, 2013/14 and 2015? That was too much and none of those series were particularly memorable.

There would also be far less incentive for those in the second tier to keep playing tests. Would they seriously allow one of the big 3 to be relegated? it just wouldn't happen.

The ICC do need to sort out the WTC, but they can start by persuading India and Pakistan to start playing each other in tests again, even in neutral venues (imagine some of those games played in England). And make sure everyone plays everyone else within a set cycle, maybe 3 years rather than 2. South Africa have qualified for the WTC final despite not playing the big 3 in this cycle.

[Andy]

Certainly India would never be relegated!  I think dazed penguins idea for tweaking the current WTC system makes more sense.  The bad blood between Aus/England after the 2015 series was caused by over familiarity causing contempt. This is a good reason for having 18 months between series.

I do feel a little sorry for the minor South Asian sides, who have all sorts of social/political issues that cricketers can?t do much about. The latest wheeze is the call for England to not play Afghanistan because of the treatment of women in their society?understandable but no more than virtue signalling.

[nat]

Certainly India would never be relegated!  I think dazed penguins idea for tweaking the current WTC system makes more sense.  The bad blood between Aus/England after the 2015 series was caused by over familiarity causing contempt. This is a good reason for having 18 months between series.

I do feel a little sorry for the minor South Asian sides, who have all sorts of social/political issues that cricketers can?t do much about. The latest wheeze is the call for England to not play Afghanistan because of the treatment of women in their society?understandable but no more than virtue signalling.

So it's ok for the Taliban to behead people or stone them or throw them off high buildings?!

[bobw]

South Africa were banished from test cricket for political reasons so why not Afghanistan?

[Andy]

Certainly India would never be relegated!  I think dazed penguins idea for tweaking the current WTC system makes more sense.  The bad blood between Aus/England after the 2015 series was caused by over familiarity causing contempt. This is a good reason for having 18 months between series.

I do feel a little sorry for the minor South Asian sides, who have all sorts of social/political issues that cricketers can?t do much about. The latest wheeze is the call for England to not play Afghanistan because of the treatment of women in their society?understandable but no more than virtue signalling.

So it's ok for the Taliban to behead people or stone them or throw them off high buildings?!

Of course not. But the oft quoted justification for joining rebel tours to South Africa was that it didn?t make much difference (we still traded with the country).  This might actually be a better course of action.

Arguably the Gleneagles Agreement did impact upon the white minority, who like their sport. In Afghanistan, however, the Taliban don?t care about sport, preventing the Afghanistan teams from international sport will have no effect whatsoever. Indeed, it could be better to let both men and women?s teams play to stick two fingers up to the unmentionals attempting to take their country back to the dark ages.