We had ICC ODI World Cup in 2015. We will have ICC World T20 next month. But what about the real thing – a Test match World Cup?
Here’s an original idea for the ICC to consider.
As Test cricket is played between ten countries, it is difficult to organise a Test World Cup. There are just too many teams playing each other for five days for there to be a tournament.
So how about five continents to play each other for a Test World Cup? Each match should be of four days duration with at least 100 overs a day.
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Here is my idea of a Continental Test World Cup. The team name appears first, with the countries that make up that team in brackets.
Australia (Australia and New Zealand), Europe (United Kingdom), Africa (South Africa, and Zimbabwe), Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) and America (West Indies).
I realise that an ICC Intercontinental Cup is going on now from May 2015 and will conclude this June.
But it is between affiliated and non-Test playing nations like Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Kenya, Afghanistan, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Namibia and Papua New Guinea.
My idea is to have Test playing nations to play for their continents for the Test World Cup to be held every four years.
Team selection would be horrendously difficult – especially for Asia.
It is unrealistic to organise it soon as countries’ normal Test schedules are planned in advance.
But let us fantasise and select squads for each continent for an imaginary Test World Cup to be played in different continents in 2016-17.
The criteria would be based solely on Test statistics of the players in the year 2015.
Each continent will have two openers, four middle order batsmen (which may include a genuine all-rounder), a wicket-keeper who can bat and four bowlers (a mix of fast, fast-medium and spin). Those who retired before 2016, for example Chris Rogers, will not be considered.
Below is my team for Australia, in batting order with their 2015 stats in brackets.
1. David Warner (1317 runs at 54.87, 4 centuries)
2. Joe Burns (555 at 50.45, 2 centuries)
3. Usman Khawaja (504 at 126.00, 3 centuries)
4. Steve Smith (1474 at 73.70, 6 centuries)
5. Kane Williamson (1172 at 90.15, 5 centuries)
6. Adam Voges (1028 at 85.66, 4 centuries)
7. Bradley-John Watling (536 at 48.72, 2 centuries, 32 catches and 3 stumpings)
8. Josh Hazlewood (51 wickets at 23.35, two 5w/i*)
9. Trent Boult (36 wickets at 31.47, two 5w/i)
10. Mitchell Starc (46 wickets at 25.06, two 5w/i) and
11. Nathan Lyon (48 wickets at 28.72, no 5w/i).
12th man: Ross Taylor (636 runs at 42.40 with one century, 290, the top score in 2015, nine catches).
Names of New Zealand cricketers are in italics.
*5w/i means taking five wickets per innings.
Thus there are six batsmen, a wicket-keeper who can bat (Watling) and four bowlers, with three quickies and one spinner.
Come on Roarers, select your team for the Australia-New Zealand continent! This does not need to be on stats alone!
Teams for Europe, Africa, Asia and America continents will be selected in Part 2, based on 2015 Test statistics.
David Lind
Guest
Sounds like great idea, I love the idea of a fantasy team from continents. Here would be my Asia team. Murali Vijay Ahmed Shezhad Viral Kohli Younus Khan Ajinka Rahane Angela Mathews (c) Shakib Al Hasan Dinesh Chandimal Ravi Ashwin Mohammed Amir Ishant Sharma
Rats
Guest
Don't get me wrong. I am an Indian. I live in India and I support the Indian team. This is what happened. Days before the last Champions Trophy in England, ICC meet and they announce that is going to be the last CT. Test WC will replace CT.. Then India wins the CT (BCCI surprised themselves) and ICC meets again. They announce CT will stay. No Test WC at least till 2020. So obviously BCCI doesn't value Test cricket.
Rats
Guest
Indians treat Test cricket as a liability. So I didn't include them.
jamesb
Guest
Team higher in the rankings goes through? Or maybe just have the top two ranked sides playoff in a five test series Or incorporate a three test series in each of the semi finals and final and if its a drawn series, then the team that is higher ranked wins.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Hey Rats, where is India, ranked no. 1 in Tests?
Burgs
Guest
I think people are taking this too seriously- it's more an exercise to select rep teams for fun in my view, so heres my Aus/NZ XI: Warner Burns Williamson Khawaja Smith (c) B J Watling Starc Hazelwood Boult Southee Lyon 12th man: Pattinson Five specialiat bowlers have been selected as a top order of Warner, Williamson, Smith and Khawaja will score enough runs. Pattinson would come in for Southee if playing in say Aus or SA, but if playing in NZ or UK Southees swing and seam get him in. Young Santner could come in on the sub-continent.
Rats
Guest
They should start the WC in 2016. Say December.. In Australia to begin with.. Group A - Australia, South Africa, SL Group B - England, NZ, Pak Toppers from each group play in finals. Have two matches happening during the same day, different venues. One during the day and the other during D/N (will help tv veiwers)... Give 5 days gap between each match. The WC will be over in 35 days.. let Eng and SA play 2 D/N matches. Will help their tv audience due to timings. One month in every 3 years dedicated just for Test WC.. Not too much to ask, I guess. I know this is just a fantasy., Can never become a reality.. :( Test cricket is the ultimate.
Rats
Guest
There is nothing wrong in fantasising. Good idea. Only problem I see is, the lack of passion from players. Just not the same.. Playing test cricket for your country and this. The pride factor.. And if the players are not passionate, it will be boring to watch. I just hope the ICC value their test fans and make the Test WC a reality soon. Don't involve the arrogant BCCI/India if they don't want to be part of it.
Internal Fixation
Guest
I like this but the question remains of how to deal with draws and bad weather?
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Thank you, spruce moose, an excellent suggestion. I realise my idea had many rough edges and it needed improvements. I thank all Roarers for their comments and suggestions.
spruce moose
Guest
I have two objections to an otherwise grand excellent proposal One is with the name 'Australia'. Surely "Oceania" is much more diplomatic? The second is the zoning. I would collapse the UK, America and Africa into one zone...call it "Atlantic" for lack of a better name. Then you have three zones playing a tri series, and it would counteract the obvious selection advantages that Asia and Oceania have. I could envisage 3 very competitive teams emerging from these zones
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Thank you, Chris Gale, You made the score 2-11 (for - against) my story. Thank you. I'll be writing Part 2 and 3 despite what bigbaddasa pleads! By the way, do you know the definition of an expert? He is one who knows more and more about less and less till he knows everything about nothing. That's me for sure! In 1992 I wrote a cricket book on ducks titled "Out for a Duck", foreword by Steve Waugh.
Brian
Guest
I'd have Rahane ahead of Azhar Ali. Also not sure about Kersi Oceania XI. Its a bit much to move Williamson to No 5 to accommodate Khawaja and I'd still take Ross Taylor over Burns, Khawaja or Voges.\ Maybe a more realistic version for these continental teams is a week and a half long T20 tournament to replace the Champions League. 10 game round robin plus Final would make 11 games
Chris Gale Home Improvements
Guest
You must be an expert. Remember experts (regardless of field) always ridicule a radical new idea before said idea becomes mainstream. Often wacky new idea is then revised and modified or gives birth to subsequent new ideas which take hold. So well done Kersi, you're past the first stage :-)
bigbaddasa
Guest
Please, please don't write part 2!!!
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Thank you BurgyGreen for your positive response. In my next instalment I'll select my Europe, Africa, America and Asia teams based on the players' performances in 2015. A tough job. But your comments, BurgyGreen, have encouraged me to go on.
13th Man
Guest
Hmm not sure about this, England are all on their own, so are the Windies. And there going up against the combined strength of all the subcontinent sides and AUS/NZ. Sorry but not a big fan.
BurgyGreen
Guest
The biggest issue I see is asking New Zealand players to join a team called Australia. Anyway, this is a fun idea. Won't happen, but I thought I'd try my hand at an Asia team. Pity Yasir Shah's banned. 1. Murali Vijay 2. Mohammad Hafeez 3. Azhar Ali 4. Younis Khan 5. Virat Kohli 6. Angelo Mathews (c) 7. Sarfraz Ahmed (wk) 8. Shakib Al Hasan 9. Ravichandran Ashwin 10. Wahab Riaz 11. Mohammad Amir 12. Dinesh Chandimal This was a really tough team to pick. Pakistan in particular has an extremely strong lineup at the moment. I wish I could have played Chandimal in the XI, one of my favourite players going around at the moment. Misbah-ul-Haq is unlucky to miss out. Perhaps could take Kohli's place. Anyway, I'm not super familiar with a lot of these players so I've probably made some poor calls. I think this is a pretty strong side though, maybe a touch light in the bowling department.
Paul Nicholls
Roar Guru
There might be a few political issues in selecting the Asian team. It might be the first ever cricket team that has 3 players with a small 'c' beside their name.
Keagan Ryan
Roar Guru
Like most of the comments, I like your original thinking but this idea isn't great. My suggestion would be for the ICC to instil a quota of Test matches that need to be played by countries between a four-year period, giving the rankings a more reliable guide. Then after the four-year cut-off the top-two teams play off in a three Test series to decide the Test World Cup. You could go in more depth by having home and away Test series between the top two, then awarding a winner by overall aggregate over the six Tests.