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World Test championship on ICC agenda

The International Cricket Council's annual meeting has been scheduled for June 11-16. A day later, the office of chairman of cricket's global governing body, now held by Sir Clyde Walcott of the West Indies, will be abolished, and BCCI secretary Jagmohan Dalmiya will be installed as first President of the ICC.

However, before Dalmiya takes over, the ICC is slated to consider some very interesting initiatives - and the one with the most far-reaching implications revolves around the proposed world championship of Test cricket.

First mooted by Wisden editor Mark Engel, the proposal calls for the ICC to structure the schedules of Test playing nations in such a way that all nine nations play each other, both at home and away, over a four year period. At the end of that period, the results will be tabulated and the nine nations ranked on the Test-playing ladder.

"I think a Test championship is the way ahead," said ICC chief executive David Richards, "and we are waiting to see whether the proposal receives any support."

Interestingly, the agenda also calls for the induction of Bangladesh as the 10th Test-playing nation - a proposal that has already secured the support of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, captains of the nine Test playing nations are also slated to meet under the ICC aegis on June 16 - and among the items on the agenda for that meeting are suggestions by the likes of Mark Taylor, Courtney Walsh and Hansie Cronje for regulation of international cricketing engagements. All three captains have already indicated that in their opinion, far too much of cricket was being played these days, leading to the detriement of the physical and mental health of the players.

Interestingly, Dalmiya for his part has been calling for more, not less, cricket - his proposals for reform including the idea of playing Test cricket at night in order to attract more spectators, and also to introduce some kind of overs limitations for Tests.

The Test captains are also expected to argue for stricter monitoring of the performance of international umpires, and the weeding out of those members of the ICC international umpires panel found to be either biased, or incompetent.

The ICC technical committee is also expected to consider whether a three-year experiment limited fast bowlers to two bouncers per over in Test should be made a permanent part of the game's law, or revised.