12-Team World Test Championship Backed By Greenberg

Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg expects the World Test Championship to expand to 12 teams, taking in Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe. A 12-team World Test Championship would open the competition to every Full Member for the first time. Greenberg set out the position in an interview with ESPNcricinfo. He paired it with a blunt reading of what Test cricket now costs the boards that stage it.

Nine teams, six series, two years

The championship began in 2019. It has run with nine teams throughout. Each side plays six series in a two-year cycle, three at home and three away. The top two meet in a final. Twelve teams in the same window means either more cricket or shorter series.

There are 12 Full Members. Three sit outside the championship. Reports of the expanded model have one-off Tests counting towards the table, which would give the smaller boards a cheaper route to points than a three-Test tour.

Greenberg on the cost of red-ball cricket

Greenberg runs Cricket Australia. His support for the larger field came with a caveat about who can afford to take part.

“Over time it’s getting more and more difficult for countries to play Test cricket because it is so expensive,” Greenberg said. “When I say it’s expensive, don’t take that comment as being [about] putting on Test matches. It’s the ability to invest in your system to create a structure for red-ball cricketers.”

On the size of the field he said: “I think for the next iteration [of the WTC], I can understand why it is that number because they want to give every Test nation the opportunity.”

The limit on distributions

Underneath the expansion sits a question about money. Greenberg said boards will have to make their own calls if ICC distributions flatten. The arithmetic is simple enough.

“Countries are going to have to make hard decisions themselves because if revenues don’t continue to come in from the ICC at the levels that we’ve enjoyed, or they can’t generate their own FTP arrangements, then ultimately any business, ours is the same, you can’t continue to distribute more than you earn every year,” he said.

• Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe are the three Full Members outside the current field
• One-off Tests would carry championship points, according to reports of the model
• Six series per side per cycle would have to stretch across 12 teams rather than nine
• Greenberg told ESPNcricinfo there is “a world where there will be member nations who don’t play Test cricket”

Australia’s Test calendar into 2030

Greenberg also returned to a fixture Cricket Australia has wanted for years. “We would love to host South Africa for a five-Test series,” he said, adding that there is “a real challenge in that between our organisations because they play in a similar period of the year.” South Africa’s home Tests fall in the Australian summer. Durban stages the first Test of the current series on Friday. That series sits inside the existing nine-team cycle.