No Test c'ship until 2017, says Lorgat
International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Haroon Lorgat on
Monday ruled out the possibility of holding an ICC World Test
championship until 2017.
The game's governing body considered the Test championship between
the top four teams in 2013 instead of the 50-over ICC Champions Trophy,
which is scheduled for England, but Lorgat said the new event is not
possible until 2017.
"I am afraid that's no longer going to happen in 2013," Lorgat told
media on the sidelines of the second day-night international between
Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Dubai.
"At the last board meeting we decided that the first opportunity that
we can play the World Test Championship is 2017.
So I am disappointed that it is not going to take place sooner."
Lorgat said the delay was due to prior ICC commitments.
"It is a reality of the commitments that we have got already through
to 2015," he explained.
Lorgat said a Test championship would ensure the status of the longer
version of the game, widely regarded as under threat from 50-over
matches and now from more popular Twenty20 cricket.
"We attempted to form the World Test Championship which I think would
have been a very good context to ensuring the primacy of Test match
cricket. But again we will have wait for 2017 to see that as a reality,"
he added.
Had the Test Championship gome ahead next year, it is likely the
final would have taken place at London's Lord's Cricket Ground, widely
regarded as the 'home of cricket'.
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the owners of Lord's and longstanding
supporters of the Test Championship concept, said Lorgat's announcement,
was a "setback for Test cricket".
"It is disappointing to learn that the ICC has postponed the
inaugural World Test Championship from 2013 until 2017," MCC head of
cricket John Stephenson said in a statement.
AFP
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