There are just too many meaningless matches and tours that don't really add up to anything. The ICC Test championship is a joke, because it a running thing, and passed around to whoever is at top 'at the time'. This is ridiculous and doesn't really give anyone any real sense of achievement. Picture if the EPL was a something along these lines, where points were carried over and there was never any real winner. Whoever was leading the table would hold the EPL trophy and then it would be passed onto whoever overtook them and then to the next team. It would be ridiculous system and there would never be any champion. This is what the ICC test championship feels like right now. Also its fake because not everyone plays every team. So SL could whip B'Desh home and away and get tonnes of points, while WI come to a hard tour to say SA and lose a lot of points, and they would never play B'desh. Its not a very fair league. The same can be said of Int'l ODIs and T20s, just some random rankings which don't make any sense to anyone.
I thus feel, that for test matches first and foremost 20 teams need to be identified. The 10 present test nations + 10 top associate nations. To start off, they will be distributed into a 2 league system ... League 1 - The present Test Playing nations and League 2 - 10 associate nations (similarly there can be 'n' no. of leagues).
The biggest challenge is that a test league cannot be conducted in one year. So the league with then run for 3 years. Ideally each team should each other both home and away, but that will be too much (6 test series a year). So at the start by draw of lots or whatever, some teams will play 4 series away and 5 series at home, while some will play 5 series away and 4 at home. Thus every team will play 9 series (depending on the draw of lots, either 4/5 home and 5/4 away). I know some teams have the advantage of playing 1 extra series at home, but at least this way every team will play each other.
Since this league will be spread out over 3 years, each team will play 3 test series per year. This is I tihnk what most teams play anyway only now it will be part of a more structured format. Points will be given not for individual test wins, but series wins and series draws only. So 3 points per series win, 1 per series draw and none for a series loss. Since all teams will not play the same number of series home and away the points for both home and away series win will be the same. Or else teams that play 4 away series, will have fewer points up for grabs than teams that play 5 series away. This will then be far greater travesty than just having to play more matches away from home than some teams.
At the end of three years when all league matches have been played, the team on top is the champion. This will be much more meaningful than the present championship. Also the bottom two teams get relegated and the top two teams from League 2, get promoted. Thus, whoever from the associate nations gets a promotion gets to play in the big league. If they are good enough they could play in there as long as they want, and so in theory Ireland could have test status for as long as they want based on their ability. This will also be a far more transparent system, than the present one where no one quite knows who B'Desh got test status, and Ireland, Holland don't. Who plays in the big league will be open to all and no arbitrariness involved.
Outside of this league, the teams will be free to arrange bilateral test series too, which will not count towards the league points. SO Ashes could continue to go on.
Something similar could be done for ODIs only they will not be a league, because then that would make the World Cup, a little less important. Instead teams play in the ODI league for qualification to the ODI Champions Trophy. Top 5 qualify for the next champions trophy and the next World Cup. While the rest of the teams, play then for WC qualification, along with the rest of the associate nations. Something like this could be done for ODIs.
However the larger point is this will be a far more structured situation and we could do away with the all meaningless cricket matches, which is basically all cricket matches played (Test or limited overs) apart from the Champs Trophy, World Cup and World T20.
I thus feel, that for test matches first and foremost 20 teams need to be identified. The 10 present test nations + 10 top associate nations. To start off, they will be distributed into a 2 league system ... League 1 - The present Test Playing nations and League 2 - 10 associate nations (similarly there can be 'n' no. of leagues).
The biggest challenge is that a test league cannot be conducted in one year. So the league with then run for 3 years. Ideally each team should each other both home and away, but that will be too much (6 test series a year). So at the start by draw of lots or whatever, some teams will play 4 series away and 5 series at home, while some will play 5 series away and 4 at home. Thus every team will play 9 series (depending on the draw of lots, either 4/5 home and 5/4 away). I know some teams have the advantage of playing 1 extra series at home, but at least this way every team will play each other.
Since this league will be spread out over 3 years, each team will play 3 test series per year. This is I tihnk what most teams play anyway only now it will be part of a more structured format. Points will be given not for individual test wins, but series wins and series draws only. So 3 points per series win, 1 per series draw and none for a series loss. Since all teams will not play the same number of series home and away the points for both home and away series win will be the same. Or else teams that play 4 away series, will have fewer points up for grabs than teams that play 5 series away. This will then be far greater travesty than just having to play more matches away from home than some teams.
At the end of three years when all league matches have been played, the team on top is the champion. This will be much more meaningful than the present championship. Also the bottom two teams get relegated and the top two teams from League 2, get promoted. Thus, whoever from the associate nations gets a promotion gets to play in the big league. If they are good enough they could play in there as long as they want, and so in theory Ireland could have test status for as long as they want based on their ability. This will also be a far more transparent system, than the present one where no one quite knows who B'Desh got test status, and Ireland, Holland don't. Who plays in the big league will be open to all and no arbitrariness involved.
Outside of this league, the teams will be free to arrange bilateral test series too, which will not count towards the league points. SO Ashes could continue to go on.
Something similar could be done for ODIs only they will not be a league, because then that would make the World Cup, a little less important. Instead teams play in the ODI league for qualification to the ODI Champions Trophy. Top 5 qualify for the next champions trophy and the next World Cup. While the rest of the teams, play then for WC qualification, along with the rest of the associate nations. Something like this could be done for ODIs.
However the larger point is this will be a far more structured situation and we could do away with the all meaningless cricket matches, which is basically all cricket matches played (Test or limited overs) apart from the Champs Trophy, World Cup and World T20.
