In an attempt to add more context to the games, the Chief Executive Committee (CEC) of the International Cricket Council (ICC) has mooted restructuring of Test and One-Day cricket and conduct it in a league format.
According to a Times of India report, the CEC has proposed a two-tier Test league along with a 13-team league, which will decide on the teams who qualify for the 2019 World Cup in UK.
The first tier, or the elite league, of the Test league may include top nine teams as per ICC rankings, while low-ranked teams like Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Ireland will lie in the second tier with the likes of Zimbabwe.
According to the report, a regional T20 competition is also being mulled for the World T20. The proposals will now go the ICC Board.
While the ICC will discuss the financial model of the game, the move has already created a chaos as far in the BCCI.
Times of India cited top BCCI officials saying that if the new structure is given a go-ahead by the ICC, the Indian cricket board has decided that it will not only pull out of the ICC Champions Trophy in England in June, but also from all their bilateral commitments.
They further added that BCCI top officials have not been included in the working group meetings and are mute spectators to the going on at the ICC, and that any decision without keeping the interest of the Indian cricket board in mind won’t be accepted.
BCCI officials also believe that it will interesting to see if the BCCI can put pressure on the ICC and indeed take such drastic steps.
As of now, BCCI still has time to make their move as the proposed restructuring of international cricket won’t be discussed in the ICC Board meeting on Saturday.
The meeting, on Saturday, is likely to discuss the new financial mode of the ICC, which will see the world cricket body abandon the ‘Big Three Model’ suggested by ex-ICC chairman N Srinivasan in 2014.
Moreover, efforts are also being made to stage two Twenty20 World Cups every four years. This means that the ICC will organise one T20 World Cup in 2018 and the next in 2022.
