How to fix the state of Cricket

[Bilal Ahmad15]

There were ~three big threads I always wanted to post and write on Pakpassion, but now that Pakpassion is temporarily closing, I may not get to post all three and I will do this topic in less detail/spamming.

I have already written multiple posts in the past about how to solve some of the issues of cricket, why do I keep doing this? To be honest, I just want to say my solutions and let it go, thats mainly it, and Im aware that this wont even be read by many people.

And Im not going to go into deep detail on the typical things people frequently mention bigger boundaries, reduction in bat thickness, get rid of no ball, despite the fact these too are big issue.

But I really believe in what I am about to say, because we need to understand the key things missing in many cricket matches;

Cricket (mostly) needs to have Purpose, Meaning and as much simplicity as possible

So lets go through each format first;

Test Cricket
Simple - The Goal (For ICC) is; Every Test Match should, or rather Must have a Result. A Draw should be seen by ICC as generally a Bad Outcome.

Why? Because a 5 day test match without a result is meaningless to a lot of fans. The only types drawn matches that should be happening are the 2021 - 2022 Ashes 4th test match or the 2020 - 2021 India vs Australia 3rd (?) Test Match.

So how do we prevent frequent drawn matches? No Flat Pitches

World Test Championship
Although the World Test Championship has been introduced way too late, as I believe it should've been introduced at least 40 years ago (but moving on...), keeping a WTC is definitely the way to go, because it give meaning and purpose to Test Matches, simple as that.

The Format - I have a few big things to say here, First of all, everyone needs to be playing everyone. Except for Pakistan - India due to all the politics, but please, please, we are just going to have to ignore this. Yes I know this is unfair, but this really shouldn't prevent everyone playing everyone and make it real Championship.

Secondly, all teams need to play the same number of matches for each WTC Season/ Cycle. And the simple solution is; Have every Test Series to be only 3 matches, so every Test Series firstly cannot be bilateral, and can only be part of the WTC, and secondly can only be 3 test matches. So yes, no more 2 match test series, no more 4 match test series, and no more 5 match test series (forever).

Some people will say; But Ashes?? And India vs Australia, England vs India?? these are historic and great series, they need to be 4 - 5 matches.

Well, I don't want to argue much on this but basically we are in a critical time for cricket now, not everything can be the same.

So now, this means all 9 teams will play 24 matches for each WTC season, with a WTC finals series to be best of three. Yep, I said 9, so remove Test Status from Afghanistan, Ireland, Zimbabwe, its way too late for them to join the "party".

Simplicity - When a team wins a test match, they get 6 points. When a team loses a test match, they get 0 points. When a team draws/ no result a test match, they get 3 points. Its as simple as that, none of this percentage of the total points of the series stuff.

If two teams have the same points at the end of the season, the way to distinguish them is first comparing win percentage, then away win percentage, then home win percentage I guess.

ODI

Well I believe ODI is on its deathbed, a non-WC ODI match is a dead rubber match for many. Why? No purpose, no meaning in these matches.

Ive said it in the past, a format or sport like this that is boring and meaningless but has a world cup once every 4 years is not at all sustainable.

So what Now? My solution is so straightforward; Remove the ODI World Cup, and replace that with the World ODI Championship (its the ODI version of the WTC). Simple. This now means 99% of ODI matches is towards these leagues, and has purpose. ODI cricket just got meaning again.

And have a Division 1 which would be the World ODI Championship.
A Division 2 and a Division 3. In another post on this thread I will list the teams for each Division.

But basically, firstly everyone plays everyone, (expect unfortunately India and Pakistan, sorry but we just have to ignore it). And Division 1 will have 13 Teams, at the end of the two year season, the bottom 2 teams (13th and 12th placed teams) are automatically relegated to Division 2 and the 11th placed team will play a 3 match relegation play-off vs the 3rd placed team of division 2. As for the top of table, the top 4 teams will qualify for the World ODI Championship Finals.

And again, from now on, firstly every ODI match can only be apart of this WC ODI Championship, and secondly every ODI series can only be 3 matches, so (again) no more 4+ match ODI Series. This now means, in division 1, every team is scheduled to play 36 ODI matches for each ODI championship season.

Simplicity - When a Team wins an ODI match, they get 3 points. When a Team loses an ODI match, they get 0 points. When a team draws/ no result a test match, they get 1 point.

Again, the second factor along points would be win percentage, not NRR.

And how about lets not make ODI matches flat pitches to avoid scores of 350, 400??

 

[Bilal Ahmad15]

Additional Note - Test Championship & ODI Championship
So now we have two championships, the way they should be fixture is every team (in that league/ division) plays the same format at the same time, meaning everyone plays a ODI championship series at the same time as each other, so for example you cant have Pakistan and South Africa playing a T20 match, while India and Australia are playing a Test series, and England and Bangladesh are playing an ODI series. Have all ties, and teams playing in the same format as much as possible, this creates a great linkup and increases interest in the game, however this would be hard to do all the time, so again do it as much as possible.

And so the fixtures for both the Test and ODI Championship should be organised in a "match-week" style, (and not random or organised by individual boards), so similar to how the premier league, la liga, UEFA Champions League matches are organised in matchdays or match-weeks.

So the idea and aim is to have the WTC and ODI Championship played with each other in a span of two years, and after these two year cycles, have a one-month and half period for nothing expect the WTC finals and ODI Championship finals.

And the Host Country for the ODI and Test Championship Finals should obviously be the same country and not just England.

Champions Trophy
Initially, I didn't really like the Champions Trophy, but I then realised it pairs well with my proposed ODI Championship. So basically, The Top 8 Teams for the WODI Championship Season qualify for the champions Trophy which will be played Around 10 months - 1 year after that ODI Championship season ends.

I think the Champions Trophy would suit the ODI championship, because lets say Ireland (or any of the "smaller" teams) has a great season in the ODI Championship and they finish 7th, basically the champions trophy sort of recognises the great run they had by giving them an opportunity for silverware.

 

[Bilal Ahmad15]

T20

So now that I removed the ODI World Cup, this now means that the only World Cup that cricket will be having is the T20 World Cup, that imo should be played every 4 years. Why did I chose T20 WC? firstly, I mentioned the first point above and so continuing with the "purpose" aspect;

- T20 is by far the most valuable format of cricket at the moment, and so bilateral t20 matches are not a huge problem because a lot of people find them interesting. And in T20 there are more of the "smaller" teams that perform well, where you have this much needed shock result matches.

But I believe most of the T20 cricket needs to be Franchise Based, and so there shouldn't be anymore T20 bilateral series, but still there can be T20 one-off friendly matches only.

Have the T20 WC every 4 years, and so in 2027, 2031, 2035, so that it is in a seperate year to the FIFA World Cup, and The Euros.

For now, T20 World Cup, after being renamed to the "Cricket World Cup" Should be 16 teams, and a different format that I wont explain for now.

T20 Franchise Leagues
I read a headline the other day about how Wasim Khan said that International cricket and T20 Leagues need to coexist. But this is not really the best solutions, because they really shouldn't be coexisting.

So what should we do? This is a tricky situation and the solution I have is unrealistic, but I hope I make sense.

The idea is these T20 leagues are not actual leagues, they are tournaments, and this crucial because (for some reason) Leagues and their longeitvty is what people like to watch (I believe) and enjoy following more. So now, the aim is to make these T20 leagues into actual leagues.

What is a possible way to do this?

Make the fixtures for these leagues similar to the fixture schedule of the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, where two or three weeks in a month are dedicated only to these T20 Leagues to be played, and those months (for the T20 leagues would be August, September, ~October, ~March, April, and ~May. Other months and time periods are for international cricket (and some Division 2 T20 Leagues only, I will shortly get into what a Division 2 T20 League is).

So now we need to realise, that due to weather issues, only very few leagues can do this. And so, as harsh as this is, the new solution is to divide all the franchise leagues into a ranking hierarchy, where division 1 leagues are the franchise leagues which can work with the above mentioned (approximate) fixture plan. It seems to me that those leagues would and should be;

- Indian Premier League
- Pakistan Super League
- Caribbean Premier League
- We need a fourth league to this list, not sure who it would be, South Africa?

I need to mention that my ranking of Divisions isn't based only on meeting the schedule plan, but also based on the profit it generates, the interest, viewership it generates, overall popularity and growth potential.

So now all the other T20 Franchise Leagues and Tournaments are ranked as a Division 2 T20 League, This Would Include;

- Big Bash
- T20 Blast
- Super Smash (New Zealand)
- Lankan Premier League

And any other T20 Franchise Tournament you can think of

Division 2 T20 Tournaments can only be a maximum duration of 1 month and half long. Simple.

So now the other big ruling;

- A player can only play for one team from the Division 1 Franchise Tournaments, and also can only play for one team from the Division 2 Franchise Tournaments.

- In case there happens to be a clash between an International match and Franchise match from a Division 1 League, then the player is allowed to play the T20 franchise match (instead of the international cricket match) if he wants to

- However, in case there happens to be a clash between an International match and Franchise match from a Division 2 League, a player is not allowed to chose to play the Franchise match and must make himself available for the International Match. But if the player doesn't get called up for the international match, then they are allowed to play the Franchise match/ tournament.

Division 1 and Division 2 leagues ideally shouldn't clash, but this is near impossible to avoid, and if there are any clashes, then a player can't play for these leagues of the different divisions that clash fixtures.

 

[Bilal Ahmad15]

Other Formats
T10, Hundred, 6Sixty, Something else, And another format, and an additional format. For all these new formats, I have one thing to say;

Get Rid of them immediately!

Why?

Imagine; So, you are new to the sport of cricket and you want to know this sport more, so you have a look at the formats. You see there is Test Cricket, ODI Cricket and The popular T20 Cricket. You are quite confused honestly, but you try to understand the differences between them. Its going alright so far

Bt wait. You find out that there is this other tournament called the Hundreed where they have 100 balls for each innings. So how many balls does have T20 have, and why did they need to make another game with 100 balls.

Then there is something called T10. is T10 part of T20?? or the other way around??

3IC, is this a cricket thing or some Program??

Nintey-Nintey? They already have a game with 120 balls in an innings, they then have a game with 100 balls, why 90 balls now??

6Sixty?? What is going on?

And then you, as the person who was wanting to know about cricket is quite confused at this complete, rubbish mess.

I really hope you get the point; There can only be three formats; Test Cricket, ODI Cricket and T20 Cricket. Simplicity


People say, but look at how much interest there is/was in the Hundred. Let me tell you, people are interested in this stuff because its something new. Again, its interesting because its just something new. Anything that is new will automatically have some initial interest. But year after year of this Hundred tournaments, I believe it will (just like a lot of cricket today) lose interest.

And then what???? Have 'The Fifty', T30, Fifteen ball matches, a super over match, and then at that point what else would be new???

Its a cricketing crime that boards and people are allowed to just make a new format, where is the control??

Final Words

I didn't even mention all of the problems and solutions I had but I tried to cover the main ones.

I would be really thankful even if one person read this. Thanks

 

[Bilal Ahmad15]

Division 1 - World ODI Championship - 13 Teams
Looking at the super league standings:

1. New Zealand
2. England
3. Bangladesh
4. India
5. Pakistan
6. Australia
7. Afghanistan
8. South Africa
9. West Indies
10. Sri Lanka
------------------------
11. Ireland
------------------------
12. Zimbabwe
13. Netherlands

Zimbabwe and Netherlands are Automatically Relegated to Division 2. Ireland will face a relegation play-off series vs Nepal. Scotland and Oman are Promoted to the next seasons ODI Championship Season. And have the same relegation and promotion system for Division 2 and 3.

Top 8 Teams for ODI Championship qualify for Champions Trophy which will be played around 10 months - 1 year after the ODI Championship season and finals concludes.

Division 2 - 9 Teams
1. Scotland
2. Oman
3. Nepal
4. Namibia
5. United States
6. United Arab Emirates
7. Papua New Guinea
8. Canada
9. Jersey

Division 3 - 10 Teams
- Denmark
- Uganda
- Qatar
- Singapore
- Hong Kong
- Vanuatu
- Malaysia
- Kenya
- Italy
- Bermuda

Creating Purpose

 

[MenInG]

Tremendous writeup!

I love the idea of 2 tier WTC championship - it has to be done that way.

 

[gazza619]

I applaud you on your sincere efforts here.

I have this romantic affiliation with the ODI WC and so therefore don't want to end it.

The issue with your proposal on test cricket is that it will bring equality between all cricket boards and the economics wont work. The big cricket boards have bigger expenses and therefore they need those 4-5 test match series to get the lion share of revenues.

Bi-lateral ODIs and T20s are again needed to bring in revenue. Perhaps they can be made meaningful by relegating the poor performing teams.

The minnow teams should be kept away from tests and ODIs which should be restricted to 8 teams.

 

[Bilal Ahmad15]

I applaud you on your sincere efforts here.

I have this romantic affiliation with the ODI WC and so therefore don't want to end it.

The issue with your proposal on test cricket is that it will bring equality between all cricket boards and the economics wont work. The big cricket boards have bigger expenses and therefore they need those 4-5 test match series to get the lion share of revenues.

Bi-lateral ODIs and T20s are again needed to bring in revenue. Perhaps they can be made meaningful by relegating the poor performing teams.

The minnow teams should be kept away from tests and ODIs which should be restricted to 8 teams.

I admit that my solutions for test cricket, world test championship are unrealistic.

But I really do think my solutions for ODI mainly would work much better than the current situation. You mention that Bilateral ODIs are needed, but Bilateral ODIs are meaningless matches.

ODI matches part of this ODI championship league have meaning and so would bring excitement and interest as well a format that makes sense, compared to bilaterals. And so ODI championship matches should generate a better revenue.

As for Bilateral T20s, I agree that these generate great revenue, but I basically want T20i cricket to be like International Football, where International Football teams in a 4 year period (ignoring the Euros, Copa America, and other confederation tournaments) play little matches, mostly just One-off Friendly matches as well as quailfication process for the T20 World Cup from each Continent (But I wont go into detail about this T20 World Cup qualification). The T20 Franchise Leagues needs to be the main T20 that we see, just like how in football its mostly Club football matches.

And I understand that a lot of fans don't want the classic things in cricket, like ODI WC, 5 match series, ICC team rankings to be removed, but I think some of the reasons for the disorganisation seen in the state of cricket today is partly due to this.

In Cricket especially very few things can be the same, Ive read that Tri-Series and Nation vs Rest of World or Asia v Rest of World Matches used to be popular, but nowadays they are quite annoying and silly to organise. This is one example.

But anyways, thanks for reading and posting a reply.

 

[sweep_shot]

I think the only real way to fix state of cricket is to ban T20 and other shorter formats (which is unlikely to happen).

If cricket can go back to ODI and Test like good old days, things can be great again.

T20 has destroyed cricket as we know it.

 

[Bilal Ahmad15]

I think the only real way to fix state of cricket is to ban T20 and other shorter formats (which is unlikely to happen).

If cricket can go back to ODI and Test like good old days, things can be great again.

T20 has destroyed cricket as we know it.

This will be hard to believe maybe, but T20 cricket is currently the most valuable format for cricket. It brings the most profit, entertainment, interest, growth.

There is no way T20 will be removed, in fact if we were to imagine a crazy scenario where T20 gets removed, then in that case Test and ODI would've already been removed

Basically Cricket has changed. But yes the other new formats are stupid and must be removed

 

[light]

Great writeup. Honestly, I think test is on it's deathbed, not ODI (but will possibly be soon). ODI WC is bigger than both T20/WTC.

But completely agree with 5 days of play and no result is a bummer for the fans. If it was up to me, this would be the format I would shoot and let die first. hardcore fans can argue otherwise but majority do not like Test matches nor follows it. Hence, not enough money is there. Also, not many team (even test nations) are good at test cricket. Apart from 5-6 teams, who really plays test well? Take a look at BD, how long has it been now, 20 years in test - nothing to show for.

 

[Bilal Ahmad15]

Alright, for anyone who still is reading this thread, I tried to actually make a hypothetical schedule between 2021 - 2023 for the World Test Championship and ODI Championship, where everyone is scheduled to play everyone, and I had no major issues with the WTC schedule, but ODI championship matches was a problem and I couldn't be bothered anymore. But main points;

- I do believe It is possible to schedule a WTC and ODI championship where all teams are scheduled to play everyone + WTC and WODI Championship Finals.

- After making my schedule, I realised that my original solution for Franchise T20 cricket to have a schedule similar to a proper league, and most similar to the UEFA Champions League, is simply not possible to happen. Since every single month of the year except May and April is mostly just packed with international cricket.

So if cricket was to continue having three formats, these leagues will have to remain as one-month and two-month tournaments.

- After making my schedule, The whole of April, the whole of May is free and a few weeks of March is free. This 2 month and 2 week period ~ is for Division 1 T20 Leagues only, so the IPL, PSL, CPL/ Major League Cricket or SAT20 or Dubai or Saudi League (Whatever it is) can allowed be played in this timeframe.


Other Additional Points

- Get Rid of Test Rankings and ODI rankings for simplicity and obvious reasons beign that there is now a Test
Championship and ODI championship!

- They should join the CPL (Carribean Premier League) with USA cricket to form 'Major League Cricket' which would have the 6 T20 franchise teams from the CPL and ~6 Franchise Teams from USA.

A Request

The reason why I wrote all this is I want to move on from most of cricket, and to somehow have a hope that I will no longer care about this stuff. But I would really like advice on how to move on, (as weird as that sounds), if anyone actually has advice, Thanks.

Hopefully Im done for this topic

 

[Bilal Ahmad15]

Great writeup. Honestly, I think test is on it's deathbed, not ODI (but will possibly be soon). ODI WC is bigger than both T20/WTC.

But completely agree with 5 days of play and no result is a bummer for the fans. If it was up to me, this would be the format I would shoot and let die first. hardcore fans can argue otherwise but majority do not like Test matches nor follows it. Hence, not enough money is there. Also, not many team (even test nations) are good at test cricket. Apart from 5-6 teams, who really plays test well? Take a look at BD, how long has it been now, 20 years in test - nothing to show for.

I know a lot of people will immediately argue against this, but if ICC still wants to maintain organisation with meaningful cricket, then they need to remove the following teams of Test Status:

- Bangladesh and West Indies Definitely

This will mean, for my idea of everyone playing everyone, there are less Test matches played by each team in a WTC season.

 

[light]

I know a lot of people will immediately argue against this, but if ICC still wants to maintain organisation with meaningful cricket, then they need to remove the following teams of Test Status:

- Bangladesh and West Indies Definitely

This will mean, for my idea of everyone playing everyone, there are less Test matches played by each team in a WTC season.

Sure, but then you also have to look into Afg/Ire/Zim and why leave SL behind, they are no better in test these days either. What's the point of taking the W out of WTC.

There are 2-3 teams that can play competitively and then there are the other 3-4 that are Average/Ok at best in test. And then you have the bottom tiers, miracles need to happen for them to win a test match. Test cricket makes no sense to me honestly. For most teams, you can already predict who will win before the match even starts, and it's quite accurate compared to ODI/T20, making it hella boring. Also, in the 21st century, it has no business being on TV. No one has time to follow/watch test cricket.

 

[gibsyhesperis]

I know a lot of people will immediately argue against this, but if ICC still wants to maintain organisation with meaningful cricket, then they need to remove the following teams of Test Status:

- Bangladesh and West Indies Definitely

This will mean, for my idea of everyone playing everyone, there are less Test matches played by each team in a WTC season.

There is no need to do this.
Test cricket will only be played, in the not to distant future, by three nations — India, Australia and England.
Lesser nations will stick to white ball cricket as their fans have no real interest and they cannot generate revenue.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

For cricket to survive, we need to let the free market decide which format needs to be culled and the answer is very obvious. But traditionalists want us to believe that we should subsidise the longest format and force even Test nations that make losses by hosting Tests to continue hosting by creating a so-called Test match fund from ICC revenues.

The purpose is completely self-defeating. India was in the WTC final and it didn't generate anywhere near the interest that people thought it would. Test match cricket is finished if you cant generate interest even in India.

It's a reality that we must not be blind to whether we like it or not. WTC has done very little to change the format's fortunes.

There should not be a hierarchy on the basis of Test playing nations. All it does is perpetuate the hegemony of the Test playing nations. It is impossible and undesirable for younger cricket playing nations to invest in a 4 day domestic game for an internatonal 5 day game that is not profitable at all.

You want to democratise the sport and make it truly global? Stop artificially holding up Tests to some mythical standard and let nations choose whether they want to play the format or not. I doubt anyone apart from Big 3 would want to play tests at all.

Also throw open ICC voting to all ICC members and not just to so called elite Test playing nations. It always makes me laugh when posters suggest that the Big 3 are responsible for holding cricket hostage but at the same time pay obeisance to the one format that gives them extraordinary power to determine the future of the sport.

You can only have one or the other. The faster everyone realises this, the better it would be for the sport we all love.

 

[light]

^this guy gets it! 100% on point.

 

[Bilal Ahmad15]

Sure, but then you also have to look into Afg/Ire/Zim and why leave SL behind, they are no better in test these days either. What's the point of taking the W out of WTC.

There are 2-3 teams that can play competitively and then there are the other 3-4 that are Average/Ok at best in test. And then you have the bottom tiers, miracles need to happen for them to win a test match. Test cricket makes no sense to me honestly. For most teams, you can already predict who will win before the match even starts, and it's quite accurate compared to ODI/T20, making it hella boring. Also, in the 21st century, it has no business being on TV. No one has time to follow/watch test cricket.

In that post (you replied), I was originally wanting to write that perhaps;

Pakistan and Sri Lanka should also be removed of Test Status?

And in the OP, I mention that also Ireland, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan should be removed of Test Status.

This now leads to like 5 Nations left that would be good competition to each other, they could probably play each other home and away in a two-year cycle, but I wouldn't want that to happen

 

[Bilal Ahmad15]

Well Thanks a lot to those who have posted and replied.

And as I was making that schedule / trying to fit all the Test, ODI matches and T20 franchise leagues in a two year cycle, basically a huge chunk of that timeframe goes to Test Cricket.

But Some great points made by other posters, Test Cricket brings financial losses in Pakistan, West Indies, Bangladesh, I think, correct me if Im wrong.

I even read previously that New Zealand has financial loses form test cricket also.

And so many of these games firstly are empty crowds, and recently the matches have been poor quality.

I am sort of starting to agree that Test Cricket should be heavily reduced, But not fully removed since I think most people would be fit with India-Australia-England and Maybe South Africa (or even maybe New Zealand) playing Test Cricket.

This heavy reduction of test cricket would allow for my proposed ODI championship to flourish better.

But Financially, and growth and interest-wise, the best thing is this would allow the T20 Franchise leagues to expand.

 

[gibsyhesperis]

For cricket to survive, we need to let the free market decide which format needs to be culled and the answer is very obvious. But traditionalists want us to believe that we should subsidise the longest format and force even Test nations that make losses by hosting Tests to continue hosting by creating a so-called Test match fund from ICC revenues.

The purpose is completely self-defeating. India was in the WTC final and it didn't generate anywhere near the interest that people thought it would. Test match cricket is finished if you cant generate interest even in India.

It's a reality that we must not be blind to whether we like it or not. WTC has done very little to change the format's fortunes.

There should not be a hierarchy on the basis of Test playing nations. All it does is perpetuate the hegemony of the Test playing nations. It is impossible and undesirable for younger cricket playing nations to invest in a 4 day domestic game for an internatonal 5 day game that is not profitable at all.

You want to democratise the sport and make it truly global? Stop artificially holding up Tests to some mythical standard and let nations choose whether they want to play the format or not. I doubt anyone apart from Big 3 would want to play tests at all.

Also throw open ICC voting to all ICC members and not just to so called elite Test playing nations. It always makes me laugh when posters suggest that the Big 3 are responsible for holding cricket hostage but at the same time pay obeisance to the one format that gives them extraordinary power to determine the future of the sport.

You can only have one or the other. The faster everyone realises this, the better it would be for the sport we all love.

This is an exceedingly India-centric view of the world.
In England, Test cricket generates the revenue that keeps the county structure going.
The Hundred is still losing money, the Vitality T20 blast generates some income but counties totally depend on Test cricket handouts from the ECB.

The Ashes are sold out -- there will be a capacity crowd today (in, fact 20 000 of the tickets were already sold for Day 5 even before it was known that it would be a thriller).
England cricket fans love Test cricket -- T20 is just a bit of fun, even when they won the world cup.

Indian and Pakistani fans increasingly seem to have little interest in Test cricket --fine. Fortunately, Indian stars such as Kohli still openly describe it as the highest form of the game.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

This is an exceedingly India-centric view of the world.
In England, Test cricket generates the revenue that keeps the county structure going.
The Hundred is still losing money, the Vitality T20 blast generates some income but counties totally depend on Test cricket handouts from the ECB.

The Ashes are sold out -- there will be a capacity crowd today (in, fact 20 000 of the tickets were already sold for Day 5 even before it was known that it would be a thriller).
England cricket fans love Test cricket -- T20 is just a bit of fun, even when they won the world cup.

Indian and Pakistani fans increasingly seem to have little interest in Test cricket --fine. Fortunately, Indian stars such as Kohli still openly describe it as the highest form of the game.

And the view that you are sharing is a purely English/Australian view. This is exactly the sort of attitude that will hold cricket back. Not T20 leagues.

 

[light]

In that post (you replied), I was originally wanting to write that perhaps;

Pakistan and Sri Lanka should also be removed of Test Status?

And in the OP, I mention that also Ireland, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan should be removed of Test Status.

This now leads to like 5 Nations left that would be good competition to each other, they could probably play each other home and away in a two-year cycle, but I wouldn't want that to happen

SL yes, after their legends retired, they are a shell of their past.
Pak falls into the category of being avg/ok at best in test. Does Pakistan pull enough crowds for test matches? I've seen stadiums empty during Pak test matches too - not enough interest. But come ODI or T20, stadiums seem to be packed mostly. Even India doesn't pull test audiences these days. The only decent crowd-puller seems to be the Ashes (Eng/Aus - when they play each other). I don't see the money in test cricket. This is the dying format and needs to be shot dead. Nikhil_cric summed it up nicely.

 

[light]

While we are discussing this, am curious to know your view Bilal Ahmad15 on how you would add new teams to this cycle. Sooner or later, teams like Nepal, Namibia, Netherlands, etc will start knocking at the door. They are getting better day by day. If we want the world to embrace cricket, the elite mindset needs to be disbanded and the global mindset needs to be inherited.

 

[Bilal Ahmad15]

While we are discussing this, am curious to know your view Bilal Ahmad15 on how you would add new teams to this cycle. Sooner or later, teams like Nepal, Namibia, Netherlands, etc will start knocking at the door. They are getting better day by day. If we want the world to embrace cricket, the elite mindset needs to be disbanded and the global mindset needs to be inherited.

- For ODIs, have that World ODI championship and Division 2 and Division 3 that I proposed, and have relegation and promotion, which will allow teams like Nepal, Namibia, and Netherlands etc. to play against the top teams

- For T20 internationals; If You don't want to read what is written below Then : The Idea is to increase T20 Matches between the smaller teams and the top teams, as well as having T20 matches between "Smaller Teams" and the A Teams of the likes of Pakistan, England, Australia Etc.

Basically My idea is to have a qualification process for the T20 World Cup that spans 3 - 3.5 years.

First I want to mention the number of Teams for the T20 World Cup - which would be 16 Teams. And now the number of teams from each continent:

- 1 Spot Allocated to one Host Nation
- Americas (South America and North America) - 1. 5 - Meaning 1 Team Automatically Qualifies for T20 World Cup and the Second placed team goes through a play-off
- Asia - 5.5
- Africa - 3.5
- East Asia Pacific & Oceania - 2.5
- Europe - 3.5
- Additional Play-off Spot for Continent of Host Country

This means there are 15 Automatic Spots and 1 Spot left for Play-offs

But anyways, there should be a Qualifiers process where teams in a continent play each other, and for example, in Africa, after having a standings, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd placed teams automatically qualify for the T20 WC. Its a similar thing as CONMEBOL FIFA WC Qualifying basically.

So obviously you cant have all teams in a continent play each other, due to too many teams, and too many teams that low quality for the top teams, so just have Divisions.

If we look at Asia for example;

Division 1 for T20 WC Qualifiers would look like this:

- India
- Pakistan
- Sri Lanka
- Afghanistan
- Bangladesh
- Nepal
- UAE
- Oman
- Malaysia
Division 2:

- Qatar
- Kuwait
- Bahrain
- Saudi Arabia
- Maldives
- Iran
- Other Teams

So Basically in Division 1, all teams Division 1 play each other, 1 match home and 1 match away, and when all the matches are complete, the teams the finish in top 5 automatically qualify for T20 WC, and 6th placed team qualifies for the play-off. This whole Qualification process would take probably like 2 – 2.5 year, so if Qualification were to start for 2027 T20 World Cup, it would begin in like 2024 late or early 2025.

And the team that finishes last place in Division 1 gets relegated to Division 2, and 1st placed team of Division 2 gets promoted for the next cycle of T20WC qualification

What I am doing here is I am making the smaller teams face against the top teams for this qualification, but also there should be a rule which allows the smaller teams to play against top teams of other continents, that I can’t be bothered explaining. But the thing is still want those Division 2 teams to still be playing against challenging teams, and so the teams in Division 2 that finished 2nd to 3rd, will, in the next cycle, face A teams from the top teams, example, Australia-A, India-A, Pakistan Shaheens in one match T20 Friendlies, idea is to get them exposed to challenging teams.

But I think I should stop writing now... I hope I made sense.

 

[light]

^ this is a good idea.

 

[Bilal Ahmad15]

Well, since the current ODI WC seems to be quite boring, and a lot are discussing what to do with various formats, I just wanted to bump this thread where I spammed all my ideas if anyone is interested

 

[Cricket Warrior]

Cricket is becoming overly commercialized nowadays due to these leagues.

There is a need to prioritize international cricket otherwise it will decline even further.

 

[hashimafzal]

The problem I don't think lies with the formats. It resolves with the economic conditions of the game.

Outside of India, every league, competition, board is basically putting on an "out of business sale."

Cricket decreases in popularity everywhere barring the subcontinent. Instead of trying to extract every last dollar from the remaining fans of the game, the ICC needs to expand the game to countries that don't have an established market for the game. Without increasing your audience and reach, it doesn't matter what formats your putting on. You need to have more people playing the game, and more people watching the game.