The FIFA World Cup, Olympic Games and Rugby World Cup fill three of the four years in the cycle of global sporting events at the largest scale. But there has long been one space missing, inexplicably so, and that has been for Test cricket.
Given the same international reach and participation as rugby, this has never made sense.
Spreading the game has long been hamstrung without the promotional advantages large showpiece events enable, while the test game has lacked the crucial funds it brings both in established and emerging nations.
CRICKET AUSTRALIA BOSS DELIVERS GLOOMY OUTLOOK ON TEST FUTURE
This is one reason some teams have been pushed to the edge of extinction, and the Test game itself has been downgraded.
Now that there is more and more talk of excluding all but a few nations from test cricket altogether, while before long, shorter forms may finish off the oldest form altogether, it’s time test cricket played its last, major card with a global tournament.
Nothing could be easier than the format. The Rugby World Cup in 2023 lasted seven weeks, and a Test Cricket World Cup would easily fit into the time.
Four pools of four would play each other over three weeks, with two days’ rest. As the game has changed under the influence of T20, most pool matches wouldn’t last more than four days, and so there would be three days of rest. In any case, World Cups would allow large enough squads for rotation.
The quarter-finals would have to be spread over two weeks, to give the cricket lover the greatest chance to watch more matches.
Sam Konstas and Usman Khawaja. (Photo by Santanu Banik/Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Semi-finals would follow with a final in the seventh week. Sixteen teams would allow the game to grow as much as possible, with the next four candidates for Test status joining the current roster. The effect of new Test nations or those where participation and interest have lapsed would be dramatic, as is the case in countries with the football and rugby World Cups, while government support for the game would be far easier to encourage with participation in an international showpiece event.
The first tournament would be played in Australia for a special reason. With different time zones, it would be possible by mixing day Tests starting early and day/night Tests, for the same enthusiastic viewer to watch two tests back to back, thereby ensuring a committed fan could see the entire tournament.
The prospects are fantastic, beyond a cricket fan’s wildest imaginings. No sporting event in history would ever have produced a crescendo on the scale of the finals series.
It should also be noted that this is not a replacement for the successful World Test Championship, which, by turning the single final into a series and ideally semi-finals into a whole series the summer/winter before, provides a different form of contest.
The WTC finals should be played two years after the Test Cricket World Cup. If athletes are gifted both the Olympic Games and World Championships, there is no reason why a cricketer shouldn’t be allowed two tournaments.
Why would the cricket authorities choose to create a Test Cricket World Cup now it might be asked? Simply, money.
Money drives cricket now as never before, and the Test audience worldwide would be enough to ensure a windfall of abundant millions from this seven-week extravaganza.
Sponsorship and TV money would be significant. This would delight the cash-hungry cricket unions around the world.
The time is now to create this tournament, while the fans still exist. Test cricket has lost ground to T20 over the past decades but there are still very large numbers of supporters. While they’re still here, it’s time to give them something to energise and reinvigorate the game. They can make it a success. It’s also quite existential for the Test game. It has to be now.
>Cricket News
%20(3).jpeg)
0 Comments