Vijay.Sharma Posted October 15, 2013 Posted October 15, 2013 This is what Sydney Morning Herald has to say - Cricket's governing body launched the World Test Championship 2017 on Saturday, aimed at preserving the primacy of the longer format of the game. The International Cricket Council said the inaugural championship would be hosted by England and feature the top four teams in the ICC Test rankings, with total prizemoney of $US10 million ($10.56 million). ''The objective of the championship is to preserve … the future of all formats of the game,'' ICC chief executive David Richardson said at the launch, on the sidelines of the Pakistan-South Africa Test series that starts on Monday. The championship, originally planned for 2013 but delayed because broadcasters wanted a limited-overs event, will replace the Champions Trophy, the last edition of which was hosted by England earlier this year. Advertisement Richardson, a former South African wicketkeeper/batsman, said the qualifying phase for the championship ran from May 2013 to December 2016. ''The qualification pathway … will be through the ICC Test team rankings and the top four teams at the conclusion of the qualification period will qualify for the event in 2017,'' he said. South Africa captain Graeme Smith said: ''It's fantastic to have a pathway clearly identified for the ICC World Test Championship and to know that the top four teams will have a chance to battle it out to be crowned the ultimate champions. ''It adds a new meaning for all the Test teams when it comes to the rankings and the context of all Test series.'' South Africa sits atop the Test rankings, followed by England, India, Australia, the West Indies, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/the-best-of-tests-20131013-2vgt2.html Is India gonna make it?
Forever Indian Posted October 15, 2013 Posted October 15, 2013 The prospects of this look exciting. But execution will be the key. Would be interesting to see how they choose venues, because that will largely determine which one or two teams of the four will have an edge. If it becomes a one or two team sided affair, then it will kill the excitement soon enough. So venue and pitches will be the key.
Pagalpanti Posted October 15, 2013 Posted October 15, 2013 I expect SA, Eng, Ind, Aus/Pak to make it..
Forever Indian Posted October 15, 2013 Posted October 15, 2013 Has to be home and away. SA Eng and Aus will make it - we will tough it out with the Windies (look balanced and will surprise a lot of people with their consistency over the next 2-3 yrs) for the 4th. Home and Away will mean a lots of test matches with lots of travel which I don't know how practical it will be unless it is a knockout.
Vijay.Sharma Posted October 15, 2013 Author Posted October 15, 2013 I think the Home-Away thing is intrinsically taken care of in principle through the FTP. The logic might be that your ranking is based on the Home-Away series you have played during the 3-4 years preceding 2017. And then it is just like any other World Cup which is played in one particular country / area. Maybe 2021 will be played in India or Aus. The larger question for India is whether they will make the cut. I am going to throw my hat in the ring and speculate that we will see a few changes made to the FTP forced by the BCCI to ensure India plays more at home so it can win enough matches to make the cut.
Crookbond Posted October 15, 2013 Posted October 15, 2013 I think the Home-Away thing is intrinsically taken care of in principle through the FTP. The logic might be that your ranking is based on the Home-Away series you have played during the 3-4 years preceding 2017. And then it is just like any other World Cup which is played in one particular country / area. Maybe 2021 will be played in India or Aus. The larger question for India is whether they will make the cut. I am going to throw my hat in the ring and speculate that we will see a few changes made to the FTP forced by the BCCI to ensure India plays more at home so it can win enough matches to make the cut. The problem is there is a minimum but no maximum criteria. All teams should play the same number of games home-away which is not guaranteed by the FTP.
The Outsider Posted October 15, 2013 Posted October 15, 2013 The problem is there is a minimum but no maximum criteria. All teams should play the same number of games home-away which is not guaranteed by the FTP. More crucially, the distribution of home and away matches is lopsided given how rankings give more weight to recent matches and don't differentiate between home and away matches. Over the next year, India will be touring England, South Africa, and Australia which will get more weight on account of being recent than the home series which are further back from the qualification deadline. Teams playing many home series closer to the cutoff date will have an advantage.
Crookbond Posted October 15, 2013 Posted October 15, 2013 More crucially' date=' the distribution of home and away matches is lopsided given how rankings give more weight to recent matches and don't differentiate between home and away matches. Over the next year, India will be touring England, South Africa, and Australia which will get more weight on account of being recent than the home series which are further back from the qualification deadline. Teams playing many home series closer to the cutoff date will have an advantage.[/quote'] I think that should be the first step towards materializing a Test championship. I also feel that there can be a case for a single championship match for the winner and one for the 3rd place.
G_B_ Posted October 15, 2013 Posted October 15, 2013 not to mention India dont play Pakistan so how do you compute for that? teams share the point? Maybe they need to make the icc test championship a 8 team tournament. QF-Semi-Final. Played over a month. Its fair to say there is a gap between number 8 and 9 in terms of points which is sizable. I guess the problem with that is that it might become a bit too long.
Zap_Brannigan Posted October 15, 2013 Posted October 15, 2013 I think the Home-Away thing is intrinsically taken care of in principle through the FTP. The logic might be that your ranking is based on the Home-Away series you have played during the 3-4 years preceding 2017. And then it is just like any other World Cup which is played in one particular country / area. Maybe 2021 will be played in India or Aus. The larger question for India is whether they will make the cut. I am going to throw my hat in the ring and speculate that we will see a few changes made to the FTP forced by the BCCI to ensure India plays more at home so it can win enough matches to make the cut. I agree that technically that FTP over 3 years sort of take cares of the home-away problem. But practically, i dont think so. India, for example, will be playing more games away against tough away oppositions while a couple of other top countries have more home games. Even if they were equal, with not much difference among the top 4 teams currently and just the 1 test, it is going to give a huge advantage to the home team. I would rather have a 3 test play off between just the top 2 teams. On your second point, you got that completely wrong. BCCI has minimal stake in this test championship. It is ICC that will panic if India doesnt make it. When India made an early exit in 2007 WC, ICC, on the threat from ESPN, changed the format of the WC to keep India until atleast the last 4 games. BCCI gets less than 10% of every penny the ICC makes thro' its tournament, 60% from IPL tv rights and 50% from bilateral series (since we tour each other evenly)...ICC tournaments are not important enough for BCCI to manipulate it.
G_B_ Posted October 15, 2013 Posted October 15, 2013 ^ agree. The BCCI does not make much from ICC events. Especially those staged abroad. Income this divided among the full members. which means Zim gets the same income as India. The way i see it though India have a round of home fixtures right before the test world cup championships. Again as far as i am aware, the rankings are complied on the results of the last three years. Which means that for the 2017 WC it would probably be complied from may 2014 to may 2017 as qualification criteria based on ftp with May 2014 to May 2015 results being the least valuable for ranking points and May 2016 to May 2017 being the most valuable. Based on the FTP India are away to Zim (2 tests), hosting NZ (3 tests) hosting England (4 tests) and hosting Australia 4 tests). That is from May 2016 to May 2017 when the rankings change. http://static.icc-cricket.com/ugc/documents/DOC_88DBAEF9B31537FFA0F6672087216B23_1364799484710_618.pdf So the ICC have naturally handed the BCCI and India an inbuilt advantage of making the event as a result of us playing close to 11 tests at home just before the cut of date for the ICC world test cup. India are extremely well placed in terms of fixtures to make the 2017 world cup.
Crookbond Posted October 15, 2013 Posted October 15, 2013 not to mention India dont play Pakistan so how do you compute for that? teams share the point? Maybe they need to make the icc test championship a 8 team tournament. QF-Semi-Final. Played over a month. Its fair to say there is a gap between number 8 and 9 in terms of points which is sizable. I guess the problem with that is that it might become a bit too long. The Test Championship can never follow a WC format due to the nature of the Test match format. We can't have situations where teams do not play each other. In a championship of 8-10 teams, we SHOULD have teams play each other home/away for exactly same number of games.
Vijay.Sharma Posted October 15, 2013 Author Posted October 15, 2013 Personally I don't think a Test "World Cup" is necessary. It has been tried once before although not called a World Cup. In the early part of the previous century Aus, Eng, and SA (the only Test playing nations at the time) had a kind of Test Championship played in England. IIRC it was Australia who "won" it. Test cricket must remain bilateral. I don't see a great value in making a Test championship as such. I also feel it is time to do away with meaningless Test series (for ex Aus v/s Zim, Ind v/s Ban). Test cricket should be graded. We should have a top tier of 6 teams with 2 teams that can be relegated / ascended every 4 years
Number Posted October 15, 2013 Posted October 15, 2013 More crucially' date=' the distribution of home and away matches is lopsided given how rankings give more weight to recent matches and don't differentiate between home and away matches. Over the next year, [b']India will be touring England, South Africa, and Australia which will get more weight on account of being recent than the home series which are further back from the qualification deadline. Teams playing many home series closer to the cutoff date will have an advantage. We have project Raina for that, don't worry.
saneindian Posted October 15, 2013 Posted October 15, 2013 As good as this sounds, IMO a Test WC will not get the same value as an ODI WC. Two teams which value test cricket the most (at least as per their fans) would continue to see Ashes as the pinnacle of test cricket, Indian fans will continue to value ODI WC over anything else. Teams like NZ, Sri Lanka, WI and will not even be bothered, highly unlikely they will ever make the top 4 given lack of test cricket vs top teams. Only team excited by this will be SA as it gives them another chance to finally win an ICC trophy. To an extent Pakistan as they may get to finally play a test or two in India in 2021 if they can qualify :P
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