Rajkumar Sharma wrote: ↑Sat Jun 19, 2021 12:15 pm
Afghans defeated full strength Bangladesh in Bangladesh and also Zimbabwe in UAE. So, they can compete in asian tracks against the best non asian teams if given an opportunity. Zimbabwe defeated Bangladesh in Bangladesh and Afghans in UAE but have struggled against other sides at home with Zero level of Competition. Bangladesh test cricket was in rise after wins against England and Australia, and were looking to be highly competative at home but due to lack of interest of their star players in playing test, after a test win against Sri Lanka they got mostly hammered both in home and away in last 2/3 years with only one or two draws in their name as success in longest format. Ireland so far was competative against England & Pakistan at home with the bowl but their batting was huge disappointment.
As per present performance
South Africa & Pakistan are equal
Windies below them but it is the only team among lower ranked side which can surprise like they won series against England or beat Bangladesh with their second string side.Its hard to judge Windies.
Sri Lanka Zimbabwe Afghan & Bangladesh are similar as these teams can beat each other at their home
Irish team haven't played enough to be judged.
I'm not sure you understood what I was saying, and for the record I agree with most of what you posted.
Mine is of course admittedly a partisan Bangladeshi position. At any rate my main argument is two-fold:
1) That the biggest gap in Test cricket is currently Top 4 (India, England, Australia, New Zealand) vs the rest. Therefore, 6-6 doesn't make any more sense than 9-3 or the pre-existing 10-2 (before Afghans and Irish got Test status). Clearly the ICC is trying to restrict Test status to as many of the old 8-10 sides as they can.
2) Only the top 9 can all beat each other in their home conditions. The bottom 4 would likely struggle in ZIM/AFG/IRE but thats about it. Only the top 4 can win away consistently. Even South Africa and Pakistan will hardly win overseas. Again goes back to point #1 that 4-8 is the most logical split, if you we go purely on current cricketing strength.
The best proposal IMO - to satisfy all would be Two Divisions of 6, rather than tiers. Something like this:
Division 1 (India, England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Ireland)
Division 2 (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies, Bangladesh, Afghanistan)
Each team plays 3 teams in their own division and 3 from the other. All 12 teams are on the points table. Top 2 and the end of the cycle contest the WTC Final.