Cricket Legends Call For Test Support
Several cricket legends from around the world have urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) to persist with the World Test Championship (WTC).
The first edition of the tournament will take place in 2017 in England with the top four sides in the world competing for the trophy. The ICC says the tournament will help boost the popularity of the Test format.
However reports suggest that the tournament is failing to attract commercial backers, leading to suggestions that the tournament may be dropped. The World Cricket Committee of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which includes South Africa’s Shaun Pollock, Australia’s Steve Waugh and India’s Rahil Dravid, warned against cancelling the tournament.
A statement from the MCC World Cricket Committee said: ‘The MCC World Cricket committee is a strong supporter of the proposed World Test Championship, and urges the ICC to ensure that such a tournament — or at least a final – takes place in 2017 and beyond.’
The statement continued: ‘The committee understands the commercial sensitivities and logistical issues surrounding the proposed World Test Championship, but feels that a solution must be found. Whilst the committee would ultimately like to see the currently-proposed four-team knockout competition proceed, it believes that a scaled-down version involving the top two teams in either a one-off Test Final or Test Series would still provide a context that the longest form of the game currently lacks in comparison to one-day and T20 cricket. The committee believes that Test cricket could suffer if the concept was dropped.’
