The two-tier Test system, a trending topic in the cricket ecosystem that has been attracting serious traction lately, has suddenly picked up a considerable surge and steam. Mark Nicholas, the Chair of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), has agreed to put the concept before the newly-formed World Cricket Connects Advisory Board that now features extensive representation from a wide range of voices. One among them is Jay Shah, the new Chair of the International Cricket Council (ICC), who has been drafted into the board.

The aim of this MCC group is to become the leading symposium in the game, facilitating the debate of strategic issues in an independent forum and establishing a consensus on paths to ensure cricket’s future success. The meeting shall be held in the build-up to the the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord’s, on June 6 and 7. If the group takes up the issue, as Nicholas has promised, it will have been the first institutional patronage for an idea that has got the support of some of the leading voices of world cricket. Michael Holding, Ravi Shastri and Michael Vaughan are some of the big names who have backed this concept.

“This is an interesting idea and I will propose it for discussion at the next gathering of the World Cricket Connects Advisory Board,” Nicholas wrote to an independent proponent of the system recently.

Kumar Sangakkara (former president of MCC), Anurag Dahiya (Chief Commercial Officer at ICC), Chris Dehring (CEO at West Indies Cricket), Sourav Ganguly (former India captain and former President of BCCI), Mel Jones (former Australia international and current broadcaster), Heather Knight (England captain), Trudy Lindblade (CEO at Cricket Scotland), Heath Mills (Executive Chair at World Cricketers’ Association), Imtiaz Patel (former Chair of SuperSport, MultiChoice and DStv), Graeme Smith (former South Africa captain and League Commissioner at SA20) and Andrew Strauss (former England captain and former Director of Cricket at ECB) are the other members of the group which also includes Sanjog Gupta, the CEO of JioStar, the biggest bankroller of world cricket.

Nicholas was forwarded a formula that was suggested by a Delhi-based cricket follower and a software engineer, Amit Shukla, who has proposed a 9-6 Test league with crossover matches too. Each country in tier 1, he has suggested, plays two teams of tier 2 and a country in tier 2 will get to play three countries of tier 1. Shukla has expanded the idea stating:

Tier 1:

Australia – Zimbabwe, Netherlands

India – Afghanistan, Nepal

England – Ireland, Scotland

South Africa – Zimbabwe, Netherlands

New Zealand – Afghanistan, Scotland

Pakistan – Ireland, Nepal

West Indies – Afghanistan, Netherlands

Sri Lanka – Ireland, Nepal

Bangladesh – Zimbabwe, Scotland

This way Tier 2 teams get to play these Tier 1 teams:

Zimbabwe – Australia, South Africa and Bangladesh

Afghanistan – India, New Zealand and West Indies

Ireland – England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka

Scotland – England, New Zealand and Bangladesh

Netherlands – Australia, South Africa and West Indies

Shukla’s expansion, of course, is based on granting Test status to three new nations – Netherlands, Scotland and Nepal. That may be a long shot since the proposed arrangement is 6:6, as of now.

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How the Cricket Connects discussions pan out is key to the prospects for the two-tier competition but Cricbuzz inquiries reveal that the idea is a non-starter at this stage. At no stage in recent times did the ICC discuss dividing the Test championship into two but the Board doesn’t mind the ongoing discourse either. There will be questions whether the WTC final, a biennial fixture of the ICC, can be sustained in a two-tier system. There are positives and negatives to the idea and a decision shall be taken if need be and if the whole idea gets serious traction.

At this stage, the thinking is that it will be better commercially, but how it can provide opportunities for the Tier 2 teams to improve remains to be seen. More importantly, how will it benefit the Tier 2 teams? The other major topic will be regarding the WTC final – should only top tier teams play it? The big takeaway is that only top-ranked teams will play in the final. And there could be a play-off for the promotion and relegation which could attract a lot of interest.

There are, of course, questions regarding how the new teams will be identified and how they can be sustained in the Test league. Most full members are keen on Test cricket. Barring the Big Three, not many are interested in Test cricket for the expenses incurred. South Africa, which has reached the WTC final, is not exactly keen on spending in Test cricket, just like West Indies, Sri Lanka, Ireland and maybe even Bangladesh. Pakistan is interested in Test cricket but as per current rankings (currently ranked 7), it could find itself in Tier 2.

“As a traditionalist, I am an avid believer in Test cricket, and I feel that the very fabric of the sport emanates from this sacrosanct format of the game, resulting in the birth of ODI and T20s, just as any commercial entity would diversify their products, to promote growth.

“The interest and thought of further bifurcation into tiers, for Test cricket, is something that merits consideration, no doubt. However, it must allow for intense procrastination such that the final output and decisions should be long-lasting and durable,” Sumod Damodar of Botswana tells Cricbuzz.

“It’s possible that this idea has arisen due to the results of test matches of the recent past, which in a way is bordering on an indirect form of high performance programmes, for the lower ranked teams based on WTC and bilaterals, and worthy indeed.

“It also supposedly opens doors for some fortunate Associate Members (AMs) to be included into the 2nd tier of the format, which is excellent but begs the question of how the fortunate would be identified. There is already a serious concern about how T20I rankings are being used as the basis for inclusion into ODI categories and the scrapping of the multi-day format, giving way to the current Challenge leagues has taken away any platform for members to display their wares in a longer format of the game. How, then, do the fortunate get identified and selected, to do justice to themselves, and represent the rest of the AMs looming about for the future? Who and how would the costs be catered for, for the AMs,” asks the newly-elected CEC member.

“Would it not be wiser and more rewarding if a direct injection of a similar budget required could be pumped into the long overdue High Performance Programme for T20I and ODI formats? After all, a working group had come up with a proposal which was favourably considered? Would it not directly and positively impact the performances of more AMs in these formats that are equitably available for all AMs?”

Among the world cricket influencers, Holding is welcoming the idea. “Years ago, I suggested that they have two divisions in Test match cricket. And this was before T20 swamped this landscape,” the West Indies legend wrote in Telegraph, suggesting a system of promotion and relegation played over a three-four-year cycle. “If you do not run against somebody faster than you, you will not run any faster.” That was Holding’s justification.

Clive Lloyd, Holding’s one-time captain and a fellow West Indian legend is against the concept stating the idea disturbed him. “I think it will be terrible for all those countries who worked so hard to get Test status.”Now they’ll be playing among themselves in the lower section. How are they going to make it to the top? When you play against better teams,” the former West Indies captain was quoted as saying in The Guardian recently.

But there are those who embrace the idea. “I was delighted to read that the ICC are considering a two-tier structure from 2027 which could see the Ashes staged twice every three years. “I have been saying for a long time this is the way to keep Test cricket relevant by ensuring the best play the best as often as possible, and we get fewer mismatches,” Michael Vaughan wrote in Telegraph recently.

Ravi Shastri, who kickstarted the whole discussion, told SEN Radio in Australia. “The top teams play against each other more often, so there is a contest. You want contests. “It [the Australia vs India series] was a stark reminder that the best should play the best for Test cricket to survive. There is too much clutter otherwise.”

The idea, not exactly a new one, got a rebirth of sorts after the recent BGT series in Australia, where record crowds thronged the stadiums. The packed stands proved that Test cricket at the highest level is alive and kicking but such crowds can only be seen when the Big Three play. It might create a case for the Big Three to become permanent members of Tier 1 so that the element of commerce is protected. But will that be a fair system?