World cricket chief warns of fewer Tests from 2023

There will be less men’s Test cricket during the next Future Tours Programme from 2023-27, a leading administrator has revealed.

Instead, the calendar will be packed with Twenty20 leagues and global international tournaments,

Greg Barclay, the International Cricket Council chair, has said.

“Some countries may have to make room and play less Test cricket,” Barclay told Test Match Special. “Some of the smaller full members will have to accept that they can’t play the amount of Test cricket they wanted to, so we may see a lessening of that – four or five [games] a year whereas England, Australia, India, I think, will be playing Test cricket as they are now.”

But Barclay said he was not worried that the Test game might die, saying that the World Test Championship – New Zealand won the inaugural edition last year – had made the format more relevant in countries that lack marquee series.

“The Test Championship has driven some relevancy into it. In 10 or 15 years time, I still see Test cricket being an integral part – it may be that there is less of it.”

Lord’s will host the final of the 2021-23 World Test Championship next year. England’s prospects of appearing in the final are already remote as they languish in bottom place of the World Test Championship standings.

In the women’s game, Barclay said that he saw the limited-overs formats as being at the core of the sport, with Test cricket playing a minimal role. “If you look strategically at the way cricket is going, there is no doubt that white ball is the way of the future,” he said.

“I don’t really see that [Test cricket] as part of the landscape moving forward to any real extent.”

Barclay endorsed the women’s

Tests that are played being held over five days, following the thrilling draw between Australia and England in the four-day Test in Canberra in January.

Barclay said that the ICC would find out soon whether cricket would be included in the 2028 Olympic Games in California.

“It is something we are pushing for. It would almost certainly be T20,” he said.

Due to restrictions on athlete numbers, the likeliest competition format would involve either eight or 10 countries, in both the men’s and women’s games.