The International Cricket Council (ICC) is moving towards a major change. A report claimed that the ICC is set to approve four-day Test matches for small countries in the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle of 2027-29. On the other hand, India, Australia and England can still play traditionally 5 -day matches.
The step of reducing the number of matches will be a significant change and this will help smaller countries play more Tests and long -term series. The World Test Championship of 2025-27 will be played under the current format of the 5-day matches.
A report by ‘The Guardian’ said, ‘ICC President Jai Shah expressed his support for the 4-day Test for the WTC cycle of 2027-29 in the discussion during the WTC final at Lord’s last week.’
It said, ‘England, Australia and India will still be allowed to play a 5-day Test series for Ashes, Border-Gavaskar Trophy and Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.’
The ICC first approved the 4 -day Test for bilateral matches in 2017. England also played a 4 -day Test match against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge last month after a 4 -day Test against Ireland in 2019 and 2023.
According to the report, ‘Many small countries are not interested in hosting Test matches due to time and cost, but the entire series of 3 Tests will be played in less than 3 weeks with the commencement of 4 -day Test match.
It said, “To avoid wasting time, the game’s time in 4 -day Test matches has been increased from 90 overs to 98 overs.”
The report said, “Despite becoming a world champion in a thrilling final against Australia at Lord’s last week, South Africa’s dull program further exposed the issue and after that the need for change was felt.”