I mentioned them in passing earlier, but like many cricket fans I've been amazed by Kenya's progress in the World Cup, with today's result against India another confirmation of how far they've come - it was certainly a closer victory for India than their match against England!
I was talking about this with a friend the other day, and one of the suggestions we came up with for Kenya playing so well is that they want to show the ICC that they made a mistake in making Bangladesh a Test nation, while witholding the same status from Kenya. I did think up a solution for the ICC, especially in the light of Bangladesh's abysmal record in both tests and one day matches since the last World Cup.
The ICC want to increase the number of nations who play cricket at Test level. It's a laudable ambition and both Zimbabwe and (especially) Sri Lanka have fully justified their promotion to Test status over recent years. However, their promotion came at a time when Test cricket was not as competitive as it is today - primarily because of the introduction of the World Test Championship table which means that whereas Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka's initial Tests were little more than friendly games, now no side playing Bangladesh can afford to take the risk of a potential slip up and losing points in the championship.
So, why not introduce a new classification for Test playing sides, between World Championship and non-World Championship sides? The big nine teams could still contest the World Championship with the newer sides allowed to play them in Tests, but without these Tests counting towards the Championship. Kenya could probably be promoted immediately to this category, and it would provide a good target for sides like Canada, the Netherlands and Namibia to aim for as a future promotion beyond the ICC Trophy. It would also encourage the bigger sides to play Tests against Bangladesh and Kenya, and perhaps to use them as matches to try out new talent on the Test stage without having to throw them into a top match against (say) Australia on their debut. Then, when a non-Championship side had showen itself to be ready to make the step up they could be included into the championship round of fixtures, with the potential to actually compete, not just be cannon fodder for the big teams.
I was talking about this with a friend the other day, and one of the suggestions we came up with for Kenya playing so well is that they want to show the ICC that they made a mistake in making Bangladesh a Test nation, while witholding the same status from Kenya. I did think up a solution for the ICC, especially in the light of Bangladesh's abysmal record in both tests and one day matches since the last World Cup.
The ICC want to increase the number of nations who play cricket at Test level. It's a laudable ambition and both Zimbabwe and (especially) Sri Lanka have fully justified their promotion to Test status over recent years. However, their promotion came at a time when Test cricket was not as competitive as it is today - primarily because of the introduction of the World Test Championship table which means that whereas Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka's initial Tests were little more than friendly games, now no side playing Bangladesh can afford to take the risk of a potential slip up and losing points in the championship.
So, why not introduce a new classification for Test playing sides, between World Championship and non-World Championship sides? The big nine teams could still contest the World Championship with the newer sides allowed to play them in Tests, but without these Tests counting towards the Championship. Kenya could probably be promoted immediately to this category, and it would provide a good target for sides like Canada, the Netherlands and Namibia to aim for as a future promotion beyond the ICC Trophy. It would also encourage the bigger sides to play Tests against Bangladesh and Kenya, and perhaps to use them as matches to try out new talent on the Test stage without having to throw them into a top match against (say) Australia on their debut. Then, when a non-Championship side had showen itself to be ready to make the step up they could be included into the championship round of fixtures, with the potential to actually compete, not just be cannon fodder for the big teams.
Nick got away with this at 10:55 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home