- Jan 13, 2015
- 1,567
- 933
- AFL Club
- Sydney
How do we see the cricket landscape (in particular) with Test cricket, sometime after the 2025-27 WTC.
*Let's all assume the T20 competitions and other white ball domestic/franchise competitions are still humming along.
*Do we just have white ball internationals at the T20 (every 2 years) and ODI (every 4 years) world cups ?
*Do we just do away with the WTC as no one really cares for it ? In reality, the WTC should be bigger than an ODI or T20 world cup. We had a WTC a week before the ashes series last year and many were talking up the ashes instead.
*Do we just have a tri-series test comp as such (much like the current WTC) which includes only England, India & Australia.
Year 1 : eng in aust, ind in eng, aust in india
(all 5 test series) - each team playing 10 tests a year 5 home, 5 away
This would eliminate the uneveness in the amount of games currently played as the current WTC has more holes in it than swiss cheese.
The 3 teams would play 20 tests over a 2 year period - and a final could be played between the top 2 - with the top team hosting the final.
Playing the final may be a challenge logistically.
The advantages to this would mean all 3 teams playing each other evenly both home and away in each 2 year cycle.
They would also not play any less then they currently are.
England do love a 7 test home summer, so maybe playing each series as a 7 test series would also be an option - for me that's probably a stretch with all the white ball cricket being played. We'd still want them to play white ball cricket to ensure they don't fall behind the rest of the world - although these countries have depth and could even field a completely different XI to the test side. In any case some test players would then only be rested from some white ball franchise stuff as white ball internationals would only be world cup games.
If England, India, or Australia wanted more than a 5 test summer, they could perhaps play a 1 off test or 2 tests against one of the other 9 test nations as a lead up to the 5 test series. That way venues such as Hobart, Canberra could still host tests. This would not be a part of the Eng-Ind-Aust championship.
The other 9 test nations could organise their own tests against each other if they chose to do so, if they had any interest and weren't running at a financial loss.
Not sure how these countries would feel as South Afrrica, Pakistan, New Zealand and West Indies have expressed playing more test cricket in recent times, but again it's been all talk. These countries only play 3 test series if at all, against England, India and Australia.
The tests that these nations play would all be counted with test status, but you'd never seen any player from these nations racking up 100 tests anymore.
From an Australian point of view, the BBL would continue and from a test perspective India would be here one summer and England the next.
The next 2 summers happen to be fixtured this way and if the above went ahead we'd only have to get through the summer of 26/27.
The 2026/27 summer is broken with away tours to south africa and india and currently includes afghanistan (1) new zealand (3) bangladesh (2) scheduled although there is talk it'll be bangladesh (2) new zealand (4) england (1) - 150 years of test cricket celebration.
I'd be interested in everyone's thoughts and how they see the test landscape (and even the white ball) after mid 2027.
*Let's all assume the T20 competitions and other white ball domestic/franchise competitions are still humming along.
*Do we just have white ball internationals at the T20 (every 2 years) and ODI (every 4 years) world cups ?
*Do we just do away with the WTC as no one really cares for it ? In reality, the WTC should be bigger than an ODI or T20 world cup. We had a WTC a week before the ashes series last year and many were talking up the ashes instead.
*Do we just have a tri-series test comp as such (much like the current WTC) which includes only England, India & Australia.
Year 1 : eng in aust, ind in eng, aust in india
(all 5 test series) - each team playing 10 tests a year 5 home, 5 away
This would eliminate the uneveness in the amount of games currently played as the current WTC has more holes in it than swiss cheese.
The 3 teams would play 20 tests over a 2 year period - and a final could be played between the top 2 - with the top team hosting the final.
Playing the final may be a challenge logistically.
The advantages to this would mean all 3 teams playing each other evenly both home and away in each 2 year cycle.
They would also not play any less then they currently are.
England do love a 7 test home summer, so maybe playing each series as a 7 test series would also be an option - for me that's probably a stretch with all the white ball cricket being played. We'd still want them to play white ball cricket to ensure they don't fall behind the rest of the world - although these countries have depth and could even field a completely different XI to the test side. In any case some test players would then only be rested from some white ball franchise stuff as white ball internationals would only be world cup games.
If England, India, or Australia wanted more than a 5 test summer, they could perhaps play a 1 off test or 2 tests against one of the other 9 test nations as a lead up to the 5 test series. That way venues such as Hobart, Canberra could still host tests. This would not be a part of the Eng-Ind-Aust championship.
The other 9 test nations could organise their own tests against each other if they chose to do so, if they had any interest and weren't running at a financial loss.
Not sure how these countries would feel as South Afrrica, Pakistan, New Zealand and West Indies have expressed playing more test cricket in recent times, but again it's been all talk. These countries only play 3 test series if at all, against England, India and Australia.
The tests that these nations play would all be counted with test status, but you'd never seen any player from these nations racking up 100 tests anymore.
From an Australian point of view, the BBL would continue and from a test perspective India would be here one summer and England the next.
The next 2 summers happen to be fixtured this way and if the above went ahead we'd only have to get through the summer of 26/27.
The 2026/27 summer is broken with away tours to south africa and india and currently includes afghanistan (1) new zealand (3) bangladesh (2) scheduled although there is talk it'll be bangladesh (2) new zealand (4) england (1) - 150 years of test cricket celebration.
I'd be interested in everyone's thoughts and how they see the test landscape (and even the white ball) after mid 2027.
