THE ICC met in London over the last few days and predictably postponed any decision about a Test cricket championship. It speaks volumes about the inability of the organisation to accept the realities of today's world that it was prepared to even countenance any discussion of staging a championship in the manner in which a one-day World Cup is now held every four years.
Given the crowded international calendar, and the fact that a good many teams are making far too much money from one-day junkets in every conceivable corner of the world, where is the time for such a championship? And even if it is held over the two-month period which has been mentioned, would that not amount to a great deal of repetition?
Is it likely that series such as those for the Ashes and the Frank Worrell trophy will be canned? Since any championship would have to take part either in a single country or else at venues which are nearby, one cannot imagine the countries in question agreeing to give up their bilateral tours for the sake of a championship.
Indeed, one suspects that the ICC chief Jagmohan Dalmiya himself is not too keen on such an idea as India would then cease to be as much of a milch cow as they are at present for the simple reason that they would have less time to participate in some of those numerous one-day competitions which they often host.
Why then give currency to the idea to the extent of having someone study proposals? It would be far better to study the existing systems which are used to compute the leading Test team and utilise the one which a majority agree on. Mathew Engel's system has been mentioned as being among the best and while one is not suggesting that this is so, it is worth examining.
There is one more aspect to this. Test cricket does not easily lend itself to the kind of competition which the one-day game does. The World Cup has been a successs but that does not mean a Test championship would also follow the same trend. One-day cricket is popular because a result is guaranteed within a short time-frame and this does not extend to Test cricket, no matter whether it is a championship or not. No, this business of a Test championship which is staged once every so many years has no merit. The ICC should give up the idea; there may be a surplus of funds in the kitty due to the flogging of various national teams, but the money need not be wasted on evaluating the feasibility or otherwise of such projects.