International Cricket Council’s Cricket Committee was quick to take remedial measures yesterday to safeguard the interests of Test cricket, presumably after the extraordinary decision of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to cancel/postpone several Test series last year.
SLC in 2012 cancelled a three Test series against India and then postponed another three match Test series against South Africa, scheduled for this year. Another three Test series against West Indies, scheduled straight after the Champions Trophy, was also cancelled. Last year’s three Test series between England and Sri Lanka was cut down to two to allow Sri Lanka’s IPL players to leave for India early.
The high profile Cricket Committee which is empowered to make recommendations on cricket playing issues to the ICC yesterday recommended that all Test playing nations should play a minimum number of Test Matches.
“Noting the examples during the year where Test matches had been postponed to make room for other formats of the game, the committee recommended that all Test playing Members should be required to play a minimum number of Test matches over a four-year period in order to maintain their Test status,” ICC said in a statement yesterday.
“The Committee also supported the concept of a Test play-off event as the climax to a qualification period of bi-lateral FTP matches with the ICC Test Rankings being used to determine the qualifiers for this event,” the statement further said.
The ICC Cricket Committee comprises: Anil Kumble (Chairman), David Richardson, Andrew Strauss, Kumar Sangakkara, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Clare Connor, David White, Trent Johnston, Ravi Shastri, Steve Davis, Ranjan Madugalle, John Stephenson, David Kendix, Alan Isaac, Mark Taylor and Gary Kirsten.
