Well, Norm's appealed for more cricket blogging so I'll throw this story into the mix: a suggestion from within the ICC to change the structure of international cricket.
I've suggested before that the problem with much more competitive nature of Test cricket nowadays is that none of the bigger sides will take it easy against the smaller ones because of the chance of losing world championship points. While one hopes that Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and (eventually, I'm sure) Kenya can improve the level of their play in the way Sri Lanka did, it does make sense for them to play more games against teams of the same relative ability as them, rather than just getting regularly hammered by the bigger sides.
An idea I've suggested before that might help the developing nations is to have Test nations that aren't included in the World Championship. That way, the big sides could still play five day matches against the smaller ones - giving them the experience of Tests - but they'd be able to use developmental or 'A' sides without worrying about losing ground in the Championship.
However, the problem with the plan is that it requires votes at the ICC to go ahead, and I can't see that happening. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh aren't going to vote for their own demotion, and there are enough of the 'elite eight' who'd worry that one bad game could get them demoted them from the top division. However, there could be a compromise of an 'elight eight plus one' whereby the champions of the Division Two nations could be promoted up into the top division to join the others, rather than replace them.
I've suggested before that the problem with much more competitive nature of Test cricket nowadays is that none of the bigger sides will take it easy against the smaller ones because of the chance of losing world championship points. While one hopes that Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and (eventually, I'm sure) Kenya can improve the level of their play in the way Sri Lanka did, it does make sense for them to play more games against teams of the same relative ability as them, rather than just getting regularly hammered by the bigger sides.
An idea I've suggested before that might help the developing nations is to have Test nations that aren't included in the World Championship. That way, the big sides could still play five day matches against the smaller ones - giving them the experience of Tests - but they'd be able to use developmental or 'A' sides without worrying about losing ground in the Championship.
However, the problem with the plan is that it requires votes at the ICC to go ahead, and I can't see that happening. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh aren't going to vote for their own demotion, and there are enough of the 'elite eight' who'd worry that one bad game could get them demoted them from the top division. However, there could be a compromise of an 'elight eight plus one' whereby the champions of the Division Two nations could be promoted up into the top division to join the others, rather than replace them.
Nick got away with this at 9:32 AM
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