Former South African captain Graeme Smith has expressed his misgivings over reports suggesting that the International Cricket Council (ICC) is working on a ‘two-tier’ system of Test cricket. Recently, The Age published an article confirming that the governing body has already strung around the big three-in this case India, Australia and England-to play against each other more frequently by putting them under a distinct division.
If implemented, this would see India, Australia and England-the main contributors to the revenue of the sport-play each other twice in every three years as opposed to the current two-above-mentioned-this would take some time away from using the big three teams for their matches, thus helping to fill the coffers of smaller cricketing nations.
“My answer to that would be we are in the WTC final; there is a chance at winning the mace,” he told Sky Sports. “I think that holds the key,” added Smith. “You do what you do and South Africa has done that. In fact, their percentages over the past couple of years have actually been pretty good if you were to go and look over a period of time,” he said.
Smith offered a sympathetic angle towards the ICC’s stance but said that pushing more such matches in the next Future Tours Programme would disempower countries that have a rich tradition but little providing monetary consideration, South Africa inclusive.
“I empathize with the ICC as well. This morning I was looking at a note about how much time England will play India going forward, and vice versa with Australia. The other countries become extremely difficult for them… Probably India is the best because they have such good reliability in terms of England, but where do you find them playing among the top three? You really can’t imagine how that has been tied up in the background for the coming FTP cycle, he added in his remarks.
“How, then, does ICC create a fair framework in the eyes of the top three? According to him, in the end, “what world cricket needs is, it needs South Africa strong, needs the West Indies strong, needs Sri Lanka to get better,” for “then, can you imagine a world in which only three nations play cricket in future?”
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