ICC Chairman Greg Barclay has asserted that the World Test Championship (WTC) has yet to serve its purpose. He is of the opinion that the COVID-19 pandemic has only highlighted its ‘shortcomings’.
“In short, I don’t think so. Covid has probably highlighted its shortcomings of the championship,” Barclay said on Monday while talking about the WTC during a virtual media conference on wire services.
“… the issues that we have already got, I wonder whether some of it was because of an attempt to develop a Test Championship, clearly designed to drive interest back into Test cricket, provide a bit of context and relevance around the Test matches,” he said.
The pandemic had significantly impacted the WTC and disrupted a lot of matches. This had led the board to make amendments in the system of the team rankings in the WTC points-table. They introduced a percentage allocation of the points to decide the rankings.
The ICC Chairman further presented his views and said that the Championship has still not achieved what it intended to do.
“From an idealist’s point of view, probably it had a lot of merits but practically, I do disagree, I am not sure whether it has achieved what it intended to do.
“My personal view is let’s get through with the little bit that we can in this Covid-19, with the reallocation of points and all that […] but once we have done that, let’s go back to the drawing board as I am not quite sure whether it entirely fits the purpose and has achieved what it intended to after being conceptualized four to five years back.
“I think we need to look at it in context of the calendar and not put cricketers in a situation where it’s a lot worse and not going to help us,” he augmented.
