Cricket Masala

Test cricket has a scheduling problem. Always has. But the ICC might finally have a fix that might actually hold — and it involves rethinking one of the WTC’s most basic rules. Roger Twose, a former New Zealand batter, is leading a working group preparing to recommend expanding the World Test Championship from nine teams to twelve. Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, and Ireland — all Full Members who’ve been locked out since the competition launched in 2019 — would finally get a seat at the table.

Why Three Full Members Were Left Out of the WTC in the First Place

It wasn’t about ability. It was about logistics. The WTC, as structured, requires a minimum of two Tests per series. For bigger boards hosting smaller nations, that’s often a financial loss. Zimbabwe away? Two games, limited broadcast interest, lower ticket revenue. The maths rarely worked, so the invitations never came. Six years passed.

Zimbabwe’s 2017 Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo illustrated the problem cleanly: the match drew a negligible broadcast audience and generated a reported loss for Sri Lanka Cricket. It became an internal case study that circulated in subsequent FTP discussions about the viability of hosting smaller nations. And so three Full Members spent six years playing Tests on the fringes — occasional fixtures, limited opponents, no points on the line.

The One-Off Test Rule That Could Change Everything

Here’s where it gets interesting. The working group isn’t just expanding the headcount — it’s recommending that one-off Tests be allowed to count toward WTC points. That single change rewrites the financial logic.

Take Zimbabwe. On a tour to South Africa, a host nation could slot in a one-off Test against them mid-trip. Points are at stake — the match has meaning. The cost to the host is manageable. It’s the kind of creative scheduling which turns a logistical obstacle into a real fixture.

England’s home summers offer another example. A five-Test Ashes or India series already fills the calendar. But a standalone Test against Ireland or Afghanistan — with WTC points attached — gives the match weight it previously couldn’t carry.

That dynamic had already played out: the 2019 Lord’s Test between England and Ireland, a one-off, sold out and generated noticeable broadcast interest precisely because it was framed as a landmark occasion. It carried zero WTC points despite launching the same year the competition began — an irony administrators have since recognised publicly. That stung!

What the Boards Actually Have to Decide

According to officials familiar with the discussions, two questions are on the table for ICC board heads. First: are one-off Tests a valid format for WTC competition? Second: can Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, and Ireland actually commit to two years of expanded Test schedules without it breaking their budgets?

Neither question has an easy answer. Still, the framing has shifted. It’s no longer whether to expand — it’s how.

The Two-Division Model That Got Shot Down

The Twose working group didn’t start here. Back in November, the group floated a two-division WTC model. Several Full Members killed it fast. Among the skeptics, BCCI officials were reported to have raised concerns that a division format could force high-value bilateral series to be restructured around promotion standings. That’s a fair point, given that India’s bilateral schedule generates most of the ICC’s broadcast revenue. So the group regrouped. This is the revised pitch.

It’s a softer ask; no relegation, no division splits — just more teams, more Tests, and a rule change that makes hosting smaller nations worth the money.

The ICC Meeting That Still Doesn’t Have a Date

The recommendation is expected to land at an ICC board meeting later this month or in early May. The last scheduled meeting was postponed after the crisis in West Asia scuttled plans for an in-person meeting in Doha. That one ended up as a handful of online calls.

It’s planned to be in-person, though dates and venue remain unconfirmed.

Test Cricket’s Ongoing Fight to Stay Relevant

Stepping back: this is a sport trying to hold itself together. Three international formats, a packed bilateral calendar, and a franchise league ecosystem that keeps spreading — by 2024, at least six ICC Full Members had launched or announced domestic T20 franchise competitions. Several of them were scheduled directly against existing bilateral Test windows — the ICC has been threading scheduling needles for years.

Bringing Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, and Ireland into the WTC doesn’t solve all of it. But it closes a gap that probably shouldn’t have existed in the first place. And making one-off Tests count for something? That’s the kind of structural tweak that could reshape how Test cricket gets played — and paid for — over the next decade.