Some way of establishing genuine Test world champions has been under consideration since the ICC set up an investigative committee a year ago, stimulated by a Wisden campaign to start an official grading system. Crowds for Test cricket have been excellent in England, generally healthy in Australia, variable in India but increasingly poor elsewhere, the entirely predictable consequence of an excessive glorification of, and indulgence in one-day internationals at the expense of the five-day game, still the truest test of strength.
A committee under the chairmanship of the managing director of the United Board of South Africa, Ali Bacher, have been weighing the merits of staging an actual championship or of having a rolling system which uses existing Test series to grade the nations. Their preference was for a tournament held over a two-month period every four years, with preliminary matches staged simultaneously in two main centres and a final in one of them.
It would be surprising if their recommendations have not been accepted by the ICC, though the logistical problems of such a scheme might be as big as its potential advantages to the game. The first tournament is likely to be staged in 2001, two years after next season's World Cup in England. Where and at what time of the year the Tests will be held remains to be seen, but India is one likely venue.
Dr Bacher and others believe that Test cricket needs a boost in most parts of the world and that such a championship would repeat the success of the one-day World Cup and of rival sporting events which create international interest and generate big profits. No stranger to hyperbole but sometimes a genuine visionary, Dr Bacher said some months ago: ``A World Championship would not simply enhance Test cricket, it would save it.''
The questions to be asked, however, are what effect a quadrennial championship would have on existing Test series, whether they would further relegate public, media and commercial interest in domestic programmes which have already been downgraded by the proliferation of international fixtures, and how it will be fitted into an international circuit which is already congested. One assumes pains will be taken not to devalue series like those between England and Australia which have lost none of their lustre and also that the England and Wales Cricket Board will want to guard against any further belittling of county cricket.
The possible elevation to Test status of Bangladesh, and rubber-stamping of the English proposal to prevent negative bowling outside leg stump from over the wicket, are the other major items on this year's ICC agenda.