By now you must have come across the ICC’s reported proposal of a two-tier World Test Championship plan. Under the current structure, nine of the twelve Full Members play in the WTC. The plan, as reported by the Melbourne Age, wants to split the WTC into two divisions, of seven and five teams, who will be promoted and relegated.

This came not too long after outgoing ICC chair Greg Barclay’s suggestion (“there’s some structural change that probably needs to be contemplated: some countries are trying to play Test cricket that maybe shouldn’t).

This will enable India, Australia, and England (we shall call them the Big Three), to play each other more often. It is worth a mention that the three already get the biggest shares of the ICC revenue (BCCI more than ECB and CA put together). Test cricket between these teams usually create interest, on screens as well as at the venues.

Of course, this may lead to problems. For example, one of the three teams may end up getting relegated to the lower division, resulting in them not playing the other two. As an aside, if every team has to play every opposition inside a division, India may have to face Pakistan at Test cricket. The hybrid model determined ahead of the 2025 Champions Trophy has provisions for a neutral venue for such an eventuality.

The main problem with the proposed structure, however, runs deeper. To begin with, Test cricket has been a lopsided sport for a long time. The structure will simply put a formal stamp on it.

Not all Test teams are as equal as others

After toying with series of one, two, three, and four Tests, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy finally took to a five-match contest in Australia in 2024-25, something they will stick to in the future. The Ashes has maintained that duration for a long time now, while India and England have maintained that length since 2014 (with the exception of 2020-21).

Thus, the Big Three will play only five-match series against the Big Three. To add to that, each of them has hosted one series against the Big Three in every cycle of the World Test Championship so far, a trend that will continue in the 2025-27 cycle.

There is no problem in any of this. More cricket is obviously the best way ahead for Test cricket. The Big Three do not play the other sides as often. Starting with August 1, 2019 (the first day of the first ever WTC cycle), this is how often they have played every opposition.

In Test cricket (August 1, 2019 to January 9, 2025)

The pattern is evident. Australia have played more Tests against two oppositions than they have against the rest of the world put together (the statement will hold even after they play the two Tests in Sri Lanka and the WTC final against South Africa).

India have fared little better. England have played other sides more often, largely because they have played New Zealand 12 times – not too far behind the 15 against Australia and 14 against India. And even England have played 40 per cent of their Tests against Australia or India – a percentage befitting of a six-team universe.

For perspective, the teams outside the WTC – let us call them the Small Three – have played 28 Tests over this period, roughly the same as what the Big Three have played against each other.

What about the other six teams in the WTC (the Middle Six, if we have to give them a name)? The only four-Test WTC series with a Middle Six team was in 2019-20, when England toured South Africa. The West Indies and Pakistan’s last four-Test series were both in 2016. New Zealand’s, in 1999. The others have never played these. And the last four-Test series with two Middle Six teams dates back to 2005.

The world of Test cricket has, thus, been lopsided for a while now. We have discussed it, debated it, but the authorities had not actually put a stamp on it. That will happen if the two-division format is approved.

Cricket has been successful at marketing Test matches as its prestige format. While any T20 between two ICC members is a T20I and games in most ICC Qualifiers are ODIs, Full Membership and Test status need to be “earned”. And even after they earn their Test status, teams get to play substantially fewer Test matches than the Old Boys’ Club.

Formalising a structure like that may make business sense (and even that is debatable in the long run: Test cricket will probably end up catering to a smaller group of countries. By reducing women’s Test cricket to token matches, the format has managed to near-isolate one gender.

If cricket is indeed eyeing expansion despite that, Test cricket is unlikely to be part of that journey – especially after the remarkable year of 2024.

What was special about 2024?

New Zealand ended India’s home streak with a 3-0 sweep. The West Indies won a Test in Australia after 27 years. Sri Lanka in England, after 10. Bangladesh won their first Test against Pakistan – and then swept the series – in Pakistan. India drew in South Africa after well over a decade. South Africa themselves swept Bangladesh 2-0 in Bangladesh – the first series win by a “SENA” team there since 2009-10. Ireland won their first ever Test match. All these involved one, sometimes two, teams outside the Big Three.

Anecdotal examples, you may say. Fair enough, but the aggregate numbers make astonishing reading as well.

As the above examples might have hinted at, 2024 was the best year for touring teams. The 21 wins (22, if you include Ireland’s at Abu Dhabi, Afghanistan’s “home”) were two clear of any other year. True, 2021 had 18 away wins in 41 games, but 10 of the 18 had been across Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, and the West Indies.

Also read: The hypothetical World Test Championship: Who would have contested every final from 2001-2019?

There were only three drawn Tests in 2024 (at Port of Spain, Brisbane, and Bulawayo) out of 53. All three were hit by rain. With a 25-Test cut-off, this is the fewest number of draws in a calendar year. The draw percentage for the year read 5.7: with the same cut-off, no year had less than 10 per cent draws.

The bowlers claimed 1,785 wickets (no wonder we remember so many!) – a world record, but not too unexpected given that it had the fewest draws. An even more significant statistic is the bowling strike rate of 48.6. Put a 10-Test cut-off, and there is nothing below 50 since 1902. Raise the bar to 15 Tests, and there is nothing below 54.7 – the difference of a full over from 2024.

Teams scored at 3.65 an over in 2024 – a new world record, improving on the previous best of 3.52 from 2023. It has been only a week and three Tests, but at 3.67, 2025 seems keen on living up to the expectations. And the 651 sixes made 2024 an outlier: no other year went past even 436.

More sixes. Quicker scoring. Quicker wickets. More results. Declining gap between home and away teams. And a non-Big-Three team racing to the WTC final despite as good as foregoing a full series. In 2024, Test cricket gave the fans everything they wanted, and the authorities a chance to expand the format.

A step in the other direction would be letting all that down.

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