A T20 Champions League is coming, and so is crunch time for Test cricket

A men’s Twenty20 Champions League will be relaunched as soon as September next year, after the tournament was backed by key member countries at the International Cricket Council’s annual conference in Singapore.

Test cricket’s future and a possible split into two divisions may also be decided by the end of the year, after the ICC formalised a working group to reshape the game’s calendar from 2027 onwards, according to two sources with knowledge of confidential discussions.

Shane Watson batting for the Sydney Sixers in the first iteration of the T20 Champions League in 2012. Credit: AFP

There is now a distinct possibility that the number of Test playing countries may be capped, on the basis that only a few currently make money from the game’s oldest format and that many nations do not have the resources to support the systems required for developing competitive Test teams.

Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg and Richard Gould, CEO of the England and Wales Cricket Board, will be among the eight members of the calendar working group, alongside the ICC’s new chief executive Sanjog Gupta.

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