THE year 2001 has a romantic place in the world of science fiction; it could also have a much more down-to-earth say in the future shape of Test cricket.
That, anyway, is the scenario encompassed by the proposal (details below) to introduce a quadrennial World Championship of Test Cricket, which will be considered by the International Cricket Council at their conference this week and which has already been received enthusiastically by both the South African and West Indian boards.
Until recently the most likely face of the championship appeared to be a modest tweak to the system, advanced by the Wisden editor Matthew Engel in Wisden Cricket Monthly. His plan insists simply that each of the nine Test-playing countries meet all the others on a home-and-away basis within a four-year cycle. Anything between one and six Tests in a series is acceptable.
Starting from the premise that cricket desperately needs a more focused approach to the five-day game, but believing that the Wisden proposal was nothing more than a drawn-out ranking system, I have arrived at something which is in a sense more radical but also more sympathetic to the status quo.
Financial considerations might lead towards a biennial World Cup. I would urge the ICC to consider a structure which would enable one-day cricket and Test cricket to co-exist happily.
So far the response to these suggestions has been positive. Ali Bacher, managing director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, said the proposal ``should receive serious consideration from the ICC''.
Steve Camacho, chief executive of the West Indies Cricket Board, felt it was ``to cricket's advantage to reach agreement on the staging of such a competition''.
The World Cup is due to be staged in 1999, 2003 etc. I propose that the World Championship of Test Cricket is held for the first time in 2001, giving the ICC plenty of time to fine-tune, promote and market, and then takes place in 2005, 2009 and so on. Thus every two years cricket at the very highest level would be highlighted, and Test cricket would finally have the coherence it has long deserved.
The proposed format of the World Championship of Test Cricket would be that each team would play 16 Tests, eight at home and eight away, in a calendar year. These would be split into two-Test series (it would be unreasonable to expect sides to play one-off Tests).
It is certainly the case that no side play as many as 16 Tests in a year at present, but it still represents only a maximum of 80 days' cricket and if players' commitments outside the Tests are carefully controlled the programme need not be excessively arduous. Countries would also be free to determine their build-up to series in the same way as they do now.
There are, I believe, various advantages intrinsic in this proposal, when contrasted with the Wisden proposal.
1) By operating only once every four years it gives teams ample opportunity to maintain traditional rivalries.
2) It is demonstrably fair to all countries, in that each will play eight Tests at home and eight away.
3) It avoids the potential tokenism and imbalance of the Wisden system, which permits one-match series and gives these equal value, in terms of points awarded, to series of five or even six Tests.
4) Each game counts. The points system would be the same as for football - three points for a win, one for a draw, nought for a defeat.
5) Interest would be maintained right through a calendar year. Under the draft schedule reproduced here, teams would be given a five-day recovery period between Tests but the maximum Test-free period during the year would be 15 days.
6) The championship would reach an appropriate climax in December with eight of the nine teams involved in the final set of series.