CHENNAI: The BCCI will strongly oppose the two-tier Test system proposed by International Cricket Council chief executive Dave Richardson. The proposal, which was tabled at the ICC meeting in June, had the support of the England Cricket Board and Cricket Australia. New Zealand Cricket also welcomed the move recently. It has been opposed strongly by the boards of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The BCB and SLC had openly appealed to the BCCI to not support a two-tier Test system, which will see the top seven teams on the ranking table play each other in the top division.
The bottom two teams will be relegated to second tier and compete with associate nations like Ireland, Netherlands and Afghanistan among others.
The proposal was made to add more context to bilateral series and Test cricket. Tests involving teams apart from England, Australia and India have failed to attract crowds at stadiums in recent times.
Broadcasters too have shown tepid interest in Tests featuring other teams. As per the plan, the two top teams will battle at the end of a two-year cycle to decide the Test championship winner.
Though the plan found buyers in a majority of Test nations, the concerns of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka seem to have caused BCCI to rethink. These two, with the West Indies, are in the bottom three in ICC Test rankings.
As per the proposal, they will have to play with the associates, which will hamper their progress. The argument is that if they don’t play against top sides, then the space for improvement will be less.
BCCI president Anurag Thakur, who attended the ICC meeting, said after a working committee meeting on Tuesday that India won’t be supporting the two-tier system. “Not at all.
The BCCI is against the two-tier Test system because the smaller countries will lose out and the BCCI wants to take care of them.
It is necessary to protect their interests. In the two-tier system, they will lose out on a lot, including revenue and the opportunity to play against top teams.
We don’t want that to happen. We want to work in the best interests of world cricket and that is why our team plays against all the countries,” Thakur told Express.
The next round of talks will take place in September, and with the BCCI opposing the move, the plan is likely to be put on hold. That meeting will also see the DRS being discussed. “We’ll decide after getting the final report from MIT,” Thakur said.
