More Tests for Tigers
In the four-year cricket cycle from May 2019 to May 2023, Bangladesh will be playing the most Tests after the Big Three of India, England and Australia. This and other mulled changes emerged from a tentative calendar that the International Cricket Council's next chief executives' meeting in February 2018 will refine before being presented to the ICC board for ratification in June. These revelations come from a copy of the Future Tours Programme that ESPNCricinfo obtained from a workshop held in Singapore earlier this month where representatives from various boards met to iron out final details.
By the end of the current five-year cycle, Bangladesh will have played 33 Test matches, which works out to an average of 6.6 Tests per year. In the proposed 2019-2023 calendar, Bangladesh are scheduled to play 35 Tests or 8.75 Tests per year.
The other takeaways from the proposed calendar are that the Indian Premier League will now officially have a window, a reduction in the number of Tests and ODIs while T20Is will double in number, a commencement of a Test league and an ODI league.
The earlier mooted Test league to be played in two-year blocks between the top nine Test nations is fleshed out, with each side in the top nine playing six home and away series over a two-year period, with the top two teams contesting a one-off final -- set tentatively for mid-2021. However, the league is inherently problematic as, while the teams will play six series each, the number of matches will vary and since India and Pakistan are not currently playing each other, the league will not have each side playing against all others. The point system therefore will be a complicated one and is still being worked out, but sides will likely get points for series results first and individual matches second. A minimum of two Tests will constitute a series.
Zimbabwe and the two new Test nations, Afghanistan and Ireland, will not be part of the league. Instead they will have to count on the nine other members making time to play one-off Tests against them.
As far as ODIs are concerned, there will be a 13-team ODI league played over a two-year period slated to start in May 2020. At the end of the two-year block, during which each side will play eight out of the 12 other sides in series, the prize will be qualification to the 2023 World Cup. Unlike the Test League, each series will contain three matches, meaning 24 matches for every side.
T20Is will however increase in number. Apart from matches in the World T20, the current five-year FTP contains a total of 162 T20Is and this number will increase to 260 in the proposed four-year FTP. There will also be a regional qualification event in each of the five ICC regions between January and August 2021, from which sides will qualify to the World T20.