How About a Test Match World Cup?

[Kent]

I agree with Richard about the old championship style. For some reason people kept wanting to perceive it as official rankings though.

To me it was more like a football league table, with one excellent team having games in hand.

But then someone said "I know! Let's make wins by 3+ goals against Arsenal worth 6 points, and let's make draws against Blackburn worth 0.43 points, and, and let's make..."

 

[Richard]

Come off it!

A 4-0 win in a series requires much more credit than a 2-1 does.

Not if you ask me.
A series win is a series win.

 

[Ford_GTHO351]

It just wouldn't work.

How on earth are you going to schedule the days for a test match WC, it would take forever to find the winner.

It would never ever be as popular as the World Cup (ODI).

 

[marc71178]

Not if you ask me.
A series win is a series win.

So you're saying that, for example, a team beating Bangladesh 1-0 in a 5 Test series at home is the same as winning 5-0 in Australia?

 

[Magrat Garlick]

It just wouldn't work.

How on earth are you going to schedule the days for a test match WC, it would take forever to find the winner.

It would never ever be as popular as the World Cup (ODI).

Two groups of five:

Day 1 - Day 5: Test 1 (4 games)
Day 8 - Day 12: Test 2 (4 games)
Day 13 - Day 17: Test 3 (4 games)
Day 19 - Day 24: Test 4 (4 games)
Day 27 - Day 31: Test 5 (4 games)
Day 33 - Day 38: Test 6 (semi-finals, top two from each group. Six-day games, if draw count on first innings points)
Day 40 - Day 46: Final.

1 1/2 months, not much longer than the OD world cup...

Or even four groups of four...would give the minnows some test experience, and would be shorter. Dead boring though...Australia would beat Scotland by an innings and 450 runs, for example

 

[Gaijin-san]

Mate you've got one back to back test there, and several with less than 3 days break.

Haven't you heard the players saying lately they don't need more cricket.

 

[Linda]

1 1/2 months

So like a month of constant cricket... perhaps not so great.:rolleyes:

 

[Craig]

Mate you've got one back to back test there, and several with less than 3 days break.

Haven't you heard the players saying lately they don't need more cricket.

That's why I said you would need to wipe about three months off the calander.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

So like a month of constant cricket... perhaps not so great.:rolleyes:

Very true that...

With four groups of four, it could be easier (3 tests, 3 five-day breaks = 30 days + 6 days semi-final + 5 days break + 6 days final = 47 days). Just saying that it is possible if the ICC want to scringe money out of it...I'm not in favour of the idea though. ODI World Cup is enough.

 

[SquidAU]

It could work but only if they dropped some of the useless ODI tournaments they have throughout the year and also have that year off from test matches as well....but then, I wouldn't sit there and watch a Test match tourney...too boring.

 

[Richard]

So you're saying that, for example, a team beating Bangladesh 1-0 in a 5 Test series at home is the same as winning 5-0 in Australia?

Obviously not but you can't create a fair system that depicts this IMO.
You don't need to win 5-0 once you've gone 3-0 up, and many teams don't worry about doing so.

 

[Craig]

Except Australia. I think all teams want to win a series without sropping a Test.

Winning 5-0 sounds much better winning 3-0, or 4-1, or 3-2.

 

[hourn]

I've always liked the idea of a test world cup and i don't see how it would be that disastrous to organize.

it would require about 3 months off the calender to be scrapped (we can get rid of some useless one day tournaments) and replaced by it.

the other question would be would one country host it, or would each game be played at the home teams ground........IMO the former would be preferable but the latter would get much better crowds and more money. Most countries struggle to get people to watch their own team play let alone two other countries.

and by taking 3 months off the calender it would be just like playing a 4 test series (or 5 or 6 tests for the teams that make the semi finals and finals).

you'd have two groups of 5. 4 games (2 home, 2 away). Top 2 teams play in the semi's and winners play in the final.

final series would have two reserve days on the end if any time is lost by rain. Drawn semi final would result in the team which topped its group going through to the final. Drawn final would result in shared championship.

schedule:
Day 1 - 5: 1st Test match
Day 10-14: 2nd Test match
Day 22 - 26: 3rd Test match
Day 32 - 36: 4th Test match
Day 43-47 (48 and 49 reserve days): Semi Finals
Day 57-61 (62 and 63 reserve days): Final

that would mean taking 2 months out of the calendar and having no international cricket in the month leading upto the tournament giving players time to prepare meaning it would take the place of 3 months within the calendar. the ICC would ensure that it doesn't add to the amount of test matches a country would usually play in a calendar year.

point scoring system (this is my preferred system - same as what is used in Sydney grade cricket) would be 10 for an outright win. 6 for a first innings win. 0 for a loss or a draw. 5 for a tie outright, 5 for a first innings tie. and various differentations for other results (such as loss on first innings than winning outright etc,.)

I've always thought it could work.

 

[Andre]

Except Australia. I think all teams want to win a series without sropping a Test.

Winning 5-0 sounds much better winning 3-0, or 4-1, or 3-2.

You've completely contradicted yourself here.

 

[sirjeremy11]

I love the idea of a Test Match World Cup. I see the best way it happening is the way Richard Hadlee once suggested - 3 groups of three (Zimbabwe are no longer a test nation IMO).

Current ICC ratings -
Pool 1 - Aus, Pak, SL
Pool 2 - Eng, NZ, WI
Pool 3 - Ind, SA, Ban

They play one off matches against eachother, with points being allocated upon an agreed system (eg. County Championship, Intercontinental Cup), then the three winners of the groups go into a "Super 3" (!), and the winner of this is the winner of the Championship.

The winner basically has to play four good tests in a row to win (a good period of time to measure who is the best). The teams that don't make it can play plate champs with the 2nd in each group playing eachother, and the 3rd as well.

The World Cup would take about a month (four weeks of tests back to back), and would give incentive for winning tests as fast as possible (days off), hence encouraging results.

 

[Natman20]

Not enough viewers, takes too long, would not make as much money from it as you would from Twenty20 or ODIs. More injuries and strains on players. So in my opinion. No way!

 

[Nate]

Although it sounds gimmicky, I`d love it.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Really, I think the current test championship is good enough. It'll become more interesting once Australia falls back into the pack too, because we'll eventually have series where the #1 ranking is on the line.

 

[steds]

West Indies would win it, obviously. Dave Mohammed would just Kapow! his way through everyone.

 

[TIF]

I do hope a test match world cup takes place, but then due to the packed international calendar we have these days, there wont be any time to have it before 2011. The earliest it can happen in 2012 and by then, there will be atleast 1 or 2 more teams with test status.

Now, it would be good to divide the 12 test-playing teams then in 3 pools of 4 teams each and have the top 2 teams from each pool qualify into the super-6s. The world cup, will take around 2-3 months and will go by this schedule -

With 4 teams in each group, we will need 6 league matches for each pool and will need 3 rounds for each pool with all 12 teams being in action -

Day 1-5 - Round 1
Day 9-13 - Round 2
Day 17-21 - Round 3

Now, we have the 6 teams for the super-6. In the super six, we can divide the teams into 2 pools of 3 teams each to reduce the matches and to give the teams some rest as well. This will, being the need of having 3 rounds in each pool of the super-six -

Day 27(after a 5-day rest)-31 - Super-six Round 1
Day 35-39 - Round 2
Day 43-47 - Round 3

Now, the semi-finals, which should be a 6-day match and the final, should be a "timeless test".

Day 51-56 - Semi-finals
Day 61(after another 5-day rest) onwards - Final.

Also, the teams get a 3-day rest in between matches and during super-6 as each team has to play only 2 matches, so for all super-six teams, this rest, increases to 11 days in that time. The rest period has been increased a bit before the super-6 so as to avoid player burnout. But then, we will still need 3 months out of the cricketing calendar to host such an event and there is no time to hold it before 2012 and I have a feeling that there will be 12 test-playing nations by then or incase of 11 test-playing nations, we might give a qualifier a chance as well.