England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has voiced discomfort over the proposed two-tier system for the World Test Championship while Cricket Australia (CA) has an open mind to the idea but with some conditions. The ICC’s working group, led by Sanjog Gupta, is considering splitting the World Test Championship (WTC) into two divisions of six teams each from 2027 onwards. While England fears that relegation could potentially deprive the team off its rivalries with Australia and India, CA has said that it wouldn’t make sense if the big three couldn’t help other countries.
ECB not for two-tier WTC model
Speaking to BBC, ECB chairman Richard Thompson claimed that while tiers could be one of the options, England wouldn’t want to land up in a position where they wouldn’t face Australia or India after going through a lull period. He said that the WTC model could work better than it currently does, going on to cite South Africa winning WTC 2023-25 and dubbing it as good for the game when the underdog wins.
“But the reality of it is, the World Test Championship, if it was improved upon and certain changes were made, maybe you don’t need two tiers of Test cricket. What you do need is a schedule that makes a lot more sense than it currently does, and that must include the volume of bilateral cricket that you play,” the ECB chairman said.
Under the current rankings, Australia, India, England, South Africa, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka would form Division One, leaving Pakistan, ranked seventh, in Division Two alongside the likes of the West Indies, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland, and Afghanistan.
Australia okay with model but…
Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenburg told SEN that the real challenge would be for the ‘big three’ to help other countries step up in Test cricket. He said that CA was open to accepting the model provided it helped the other nations to become stronger and have better resources.
“My open mind is in reference to, if it helps grow the opportunities for those other countries to be stronger, and have better resources in Test match cricket, if it does that, then I’m open for it. But if it doesn’t achieve that, and it actually affects the opposite, then I wouldn’t be supportive,” he said.
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