Former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan spoke out on Tuesday to support a new idea to help save Test cricket. Vaughan, along with former India coach Ravi Shastri, believes that introducing a two-tier league with promotion and relegation could help keep this type of cricket alive. They shared their thoughts after watching the exciting five-Test series between Australia and India, which Australia won 3-1 in front of large crowds.
Vaughan wrote in a column that he thinks Test cricket needs to change to stay relevant. He suggested having matches last four days with a set number of overs each day, at least three matches for each series, and two groups of six teams, where teams can move up or down between groups based on their performance.
Shastri agreed with Vaughan, saying the recent Australia-India series showed that Test cricket is still popular, even with the rise of T20 franchise cricket. But he added that the top teams need to play against each other more often to keep things exciting.
Reports say that Australia, England, India, and the new chairman of the International Cricket Council, Jay Shah, will meet this month to discuss the two-tier structure. If they decide to go ahead, changes would start after 2027 when the current schedule ends.
Vaughan was happy to hear that the ICC is thinking about this plan, suggesting it could lead to famous matches like the Ashes happening twice every three years. He believes that having the best teams play against each other more often would make the games more interesting and reduce unfair matchups.
The ICC has been thinking about this two-tier system for a long time, but previous plans didn’t succeed due to resistance from powerful cricket boards like India’s. Although India could benefit from more matches against teams like England and Australia, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) argued that smaller cricket countries would suffer too much.
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