ECB Supports World Test Championship

The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has voiced its support for the introduction of a World Test Championship although in a different format to the proposals put forward by the International Cricket Council.

The ECB favours a play-off format which would feature either a single match or short series between two highest-ranked Test nations.

This approach differs from ICC plans to hold a series of matches over four years culminating in semi-finals and a final.

ECB chief executive David Collier said the ECB backs the idea, though not the proposed format or time frame.

‘England has consistently stated it supports a play-off for a Test Championship. Indeed ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat’s own staff have approached ECB in the past month to stage the final in England which was warmly received and supported by ECB.

‘The original proposal from ICC for a two-year cycle with two years of an uncertain fixture programme in regard to the Test Championship would have been detrimental to Test cricket and ECB’s prime consideration is to ensure that Test cricket is at the pinnacle of the world game.’

Cricket’s governing body has been looking into ways of increasing the popularity of Test cricket, whose future is threatened by the rise of the Twenty20 game.

However, the ECB is concerned that altering the Test calendar could devalue flagship series like the Ashes, and could lead to lucrative series against the likes of Australia and India being shortened to accommodate matches against lesser Test nations such as Bangladesh.

The proposed starting date of 2012 could also clash with the London Olympics but the ICC is determined to push the plan through in order to give greater importance to every Test series.

Despite media reports suggesting otherwise, an ECB statement stated that it was not at odds with the ICC’s proposal in the main: ‘ECB has been reassured by correspondence from the ICC chief executive in which he tells us that he is unhappy at the slant put on his comments.

‘He also confirmed that he had been at pains to communicate to journalists why there were justifiable concerns about the original proposal for a Test Championship which had been found to be unworkable and therefore this is the reason the play-off concept proposed by the ECB is now being pursued by ICC.’

While Test matches in England regularly attract full houses, attendances in most other Test-playing nations have been falling.