Barney Rubble
International Coach
If Zimbabwe get their Test status back next year (the withdrawal only lasts till the end of the year) then we will be back up to our full quota of 10 Test match teams. Assuming that Kenya are the next team to be given Test status (they are already better than Bangladesh at ODIs according to the rankings, it's just their domestic infrastructure preventing it apparently), who will be the next two or three teams after that?
Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, says he reckons China (yes, China) could be playing ODIs regularly within 10 years, and Tests within 20 years - also the USA is somewhere the ICC want to move towards Test cricket within 10-20 years, although they say lack of funds in the States is an issue.
It would be interesting to see these two countries, plus others, playing Test cricket, because it would eliminate the "everybody-beats-Zimbabwe-and-Bangladesh-then-Zimbabwe-beat-Bangladesh" factor in Test cricket that seems to exist at the moment. It would almost create two tiers of Test cricket.
I'm not sure which other countries, apart from China and the USA, could sustain Test cricket - anyone know where else cricket is popular?
Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, says he reckons China (yes, China) could be playing ODIs regularly within 10 years, and Tests within 20 years - also the USA is somewhere the ICC want to move towards Test cricket within 10-20 years, although they say lack of funds in the States is an issue.
It would be interesting to see these two countries, plus others, playing Test cricket, because it would eliminate the "everybody-beats-Zimbabwe-and-Bangladesh-then-Zimbabwe-beat-Bangladesh" factor in Test cricket that seems to exist at the moment. It would almost create two tiers of Test cricket.
I'm not sure which other countries, apart from China and the USA, could sustain Test cricket - anyone know where else cricket is popular?