Future tour rumours

[secretzimbo]

Cricket boards are universally extremely selfish and short-sighted.

[sam_ahm]

I think one way for the lower ranked sides to improve is to play each other more often, including tests, again we know it is not profitable but then what else can we do? What I mean is that Zimbabwe, Ireland, Afghanistan, and the top associates like UAE, Netherlands, Scotland, USA etc to come together and play more series and tournaments against each other and then back each other to cause more upsets whenever any of them play against the top sides.

Still not easy to beat the top sides, but I think if they all work as a group we will eventually see more upsets, especially against the mid level teams. Just my thought though

[Andy31]

I always wished somehow they looked at making a best of associate side to play test matches through out the year.
Give the associates more to play for and give Ireland Zimbabwe and Afghanistan another test opponent.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

There should be separate ICC World Test Championship 2
between Zim, Ireland, Afghans and the associates without any relegation & promotion process for the time being.

[Googly]

Go away Vaj


Comes down to the supposed cost of hosting a test. The money they claim it costs seems exorbitant to me

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Foogly.ICC Intercontinental Cup is on a hold, with Zim, Ireland, Afghans not eligible to represent WTC. ICC can start this four day league with this 3 along with other associates, name it as WTC Division 2, to save their full membership along with test status, otherwise these 3 will not get any chance to play test with top teams. Top teams will always go for cancelling the tour or break the tour into shorter formats by skipping test matches, just like Aussies did recently. Ireland & Afghans will definately put the issue of playing test cricket someday to the ICC. WTC division 2 is the only way to save test cricket for these 3 teams as ICC has no mood of bringing relegation promotion system in WTC as there is big difference between top 9 and these 3 teams, WTC division 2 could be exciting just like WTC as nearly teams with less difference in strengths will play against each other.

[secretzimbo]

For once you have a good point! even a broken clock twice a day etc…


Although 3 teams isn’t really enough for a ‘division’ to be interesting and competitive. So it should be two divisions of six, or give test status to another couple of associates but I can’t see that happening any time soon sadly.

Also it would need to be supplemented with additional annual series against some top teams too. It’s all well and good playing Ireland and Afghanistan all the time but we need to be occasionally tested against better sides too.

As Googly says though, it’s the cost. I think Ireland said it cost them €500k per day to host their last test which is absolutely insane!!! This needs to be looked at urgently

[sam_ahm]

Foogly.ICC Intercontinental Cup is on a hold, with Zim, Ireland, Afghans not eligible to represent WTC. ICC can start this four day league with this 3 along with other associates, name it as WTC Division 2, to save their full membership along with test status, otherwise these 3 will not get any chance to play test with top teams. Top teams will always go for cancelling the tour or break the tour into shorter formats by skipping test matches, just like Aussies did recently. Ireland & Afghans will definately put the issue of playing test cricket someday to the ICC. WTC division 2 is the only way to save test cricket for these 3 teams as ICC has no mood of bringing relegation promotion system in WTC as there is big difference between top 9 and these 3 teams, WTC division 2 could be exciting just like WTC as nearly teams with less difference in strengths will play against each other.

I agree, if the ICC cares then this is a workable idea and in long term will give benefits to ICC by producing more number of competitive test teams.

[Kriterion_BD]

Recent comments from the BCB president seem to suggest BD will be touring for at least a Test match. Bear in mind that Tamim is the ODI captain, and Riiyad is the T20I captain, so if the series didn't include Tests, mentioning Shakib skipping the series is not really relevant:

"After the series against West Indies, we have a series against Zimbabwe. Shakib is uncertain for that series, and it's unclear how long Shakib will remain the captain for.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/bang ... in-1317894

[sam_ahm]

Recent comments from the BCB president seem to suggest BD will be touring for at least a Test match. Bear in mind that Tamim is the ODI captain, and Riiyad is the T20I captain, so if the series didn't include Tests, mentioning Shakib skipping the series is not really relevant:

"After the series against West Indies, we have a series against Zimbabwe. Shakib is uncertain for that series, and it's unclear how long Shakib will remain the captain for.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/bang ... in-1317894

I'm just happy that the Zimbabwe-Bangladesh series is on!

I was going through indias FTP, and the Zimbabwe series as per local media is still on in August, but I don't know how will that be possible unless india are looking to field two teams at the same time (Which india will be doing for the Ireland series)

Also there seem to be no mention about Ind-Rsa and Ind-Afg super league games. As of now they are not planned at all.