Test League to benefit Tigers

Efforts to add greater context to international cricket came a step closer to reality after the ICC's chief executives committee (CEC) worked out a viable schedule for a Test and ODI league that will likely nurture Bangladesh's growth in the Test circuit.

The proposal, known as 'Option C', includes a rolling Test league starting in 2019 and an ODI league of the top 13 teams to be played over two years from 2020.

The 13-team ODI league for World Cup qualifying will be condensed into two years from 2020 onwards, meaning each team will only play eight opponents. David Richardson, the ICC CEO, said they were still formulating which eight opponents each team plays to make it "as fair as possible".

For the Test league, each of the top nine teams will play a maximum of 12 Test series -- with a minimum two matches in each series -- over four-year cycle. The original proposal was for 16 Test series, but it was reduced to 12 keeping the rising demand of T20 cricket in mind.

Over the past four years, Bangladesh played 10 Test series, while the West Indies have played the most with 13. The number of Test series will not change drastically, but the greatest impact will be that each team will have a chance to play against the others.

Although they have played against all teams barring Australia, who will visit in August-September this year, in the past four years there has been a kind of imbalance in Bangladesh's Test arena.

Bangladesh visited India for the first time in 17 years in February 2017; that too for a one-off Test. The English came to Bangladesh after a break of seven years, while the Tigers last played a Test against Australia 14 years ago.

The new league means that there will no such glaring absences from the calendar, which will be welcome news, especially considering that the last four-year cycle has perhaps been the best in the Tigers' history. They drew series against New Zealand, India, South Africa and England at home, drew a series away to Sri Lanka and won a series against Zimbabwe at home.

Two of their most famous results also came during that time -- a win over England in Dhaka after a close defeat in Chittagong, and victory in their 100th Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo.

The cricketing fraternity in the country has also been clamouring for more Tests, reasoning that the only way for Bangladesh to improve in the format would be by playing more matches against top oppositions.

The new proposal does just that by giving Bangladesh at least two Test matches against each of the other top-nine ranked teams.

Bangladesh will host Australia first before travelling to India and then Sri Lanka in the 2019-20 season. In the following season, they will host the West Indies and New Zealand before facing Pakistan away. They will again play Pakistan, at home this time, to kick off the 2021-22 season, then they will travel to New Zealand followed by a trip to the Caribbean Isles. In the last year, they will host India and Sri Lanka, before concluding the league with an away tour to South Africa.

The Test League is likely to start immediately after the 2019 World Cup and run till the beginning of the 2023 World Cup. It will conclude with a play-off between the top two teams at the end of the cycle.

While the news has been welcome by most with open arms, it should be of some concern to the two teams given Full Membership on Thursday.

Neither Afghanistan nor Ireland will feature in the league. Zimbabwe, currently the tenth ranked Test team, will also sit out. They will have to play against each other, and may organise Tests against the top-nine if the schedule allows.

The ICC has also capped bilateral series to three matches for the purposes of working out points. Teams may schedule matches beyond that, but they will not be taken into consideration in the calculation of points.

The ICC will add in specifics such as dates, terms and conditions, and present a more detailed schedule to the CEC for approval in the next ICC meeting in October.