SA, Zimbabwe to play four-day Test
Auckland, New Zealand - Despite resistance from the MCC and its cricket committee, the ICC Board on Friday approved a "trial" of four-day Test cricket, with South Africa and Zimbabwe playing the first official game of the new format on Boxing Day.
The trial is scheduled to run through until the 2019 World Cup, although participation in it is not mandatory.
This decision was taken in Auckland, where the ICC had also given an in-principle agreement to a Test championship to bring context back into the world game. While most of those matches will take place over five days, ICC chief executive David Richardson felt the four-day format can be quite helpful to the lower-ranked nations and the two newest full members Afghanistan and Ireland. "The trial starts immediately, probably with the first one Zimbabwe playing South Africa from Boxing Day in South Africa," Richardson said.
"And that trial will run up until the Cricket World Cup in 2019. The trial won't be compulsory; it will be by arrangement between participating teams in a particular series. So, whoever wants to play it can play it.”
"Innovation is absolutely fundamental to the future of the game," David Peever, chairman of Cricket Australia and an ICC board member, said.
According to a member director present during the Auckland meetings, both the decision-making bodies at ICC - the chief executives' committee and the board - strongly favoured trialling four-day Tests. He said that without a trial the ICC would not know the "ramifications" for it to determine a long-term view.
Test, ODI leagues approved
A genuine Test match world championship and an ODI league will be introduced to international cricket after both were given in-principle agreement by the ICC Board.
While some details remain to be fleshed out, including the points system and the full weekby-week Future Tours Programme, the first two-year Test championship comprising the game's top-nine teams will begin at the conclusion of the 2019 World Cup, with the top two teams by April 2021 to play off in a championship final.
Each competing country will play in six series over that time, three at home and three away, with all series being of a minimum two matches' duration but able to be expanded to as many as five to cater for encounters such as the Ashes.
The first ODI league, featuring the game's top 13 limitedovers nations, will commence in 2020-21, running for two years leading into the 2023 World Cup, before converting to a three-year league in each cycle beyond that.
The 13th place in the ODI league will be taken by the winner of the ongoing ICC World Cricket League Championship. Each competing team will play in eight series over that time, each one being played over three matches.