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January 10, 2025 11 mins

Cricket officials from India, Australia, and England were meeting to discuss the possibility of test cricket fragmenting, it has been reported.

This would allow for more series between the sport’s big players – positioning New Zealand in the top tier amongst the likes of South Africa and Sri Lanka.

What would a two-tiered cricket system do for the future of the game?

Veteran Australian cricket broadcaster Jim Maxell joins Piney to weigh in on the conversation.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalk ZEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
One of the big sporting stories of the week broke
on Monday. The Age in Australia reported that cricket officials
from India, Australia and England were meeting to discuss the
possibility of Test cricket fragmenting to allow for more series
between the sports big players. The potential new structure would

(00:33):
see Test cricket split into two tiers. India, Australia England
would be joined by South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan and
Sri Lanka in the top tier. The second tier would
be made up of the West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland, Afghanistan
and Zimbabwe, with the likes of the Netherlands and Scotland
who are not currently full Test playing nations, theoretically moving

(00:56):
in to complete two separate pools of seven. This has
created a lot of discussion around the place. Veteran Australian
cricket broadcaster Jim Well joins us on Weekend Sport to
discuss Jim, thanks for your time. What's your overall view
of the proposal for a two tiered Test cricket system.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
I don't think it's a very good idea for the
future of the game, but I mean it all comes
down to these commercial realities that we're being confronted with
in the battle between T twenty franchises and the importance
of bilateral cricket continuing, particularly Test cricket. So I'm afraid

(01:38):
at the end of the day, it's like an avalanche
and it's controlled to a large extent by the power
of money from India. They're controlling the most of what
goes on the gate, with the TV rights and the
rest of it. So my line really as far as
our Australia's concerned, is simply if it doesn't pay, don't play.

(02:01):
And that's pretty much what a cricket Australia have been
doing in the last few years, play against New Zealand,
where we're certainly not playing Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan or Island.
And we may have done that in years gone by
when there was this altruism in the world of cricket
wherebhy you wanted to help and whatever the expansion of

(02:23):
the game. But I think unfortunately in the current situation
of the scheduling of the game and as I say,
t twenty franchises getting bigger and bigger. Look at your blokes,
they're all going off somewhere to play, and you can't
deny them the opportunity to do that because it'll be
a restraint of trade. So I don't think it's got

(02:44):
many leggs really, this idea, and the it's sad say
the rich will get richer and the poor will struggle.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
So okay, so you don't think it will happen, but
there will still be a sense of the likes of
Australia in the England playing one another more often than
the leaser lights of teest cricket.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Well, it seems to be the way a lot of
people wanted to move because you know, they want the
one of the dollars that come from the most attractive
form of the game, and that's really the top three
nations playing with a little bit of Pakistan, New Zealand
South Africa have thrown in, but as we've seen, even
South Africa have been struggling to put their best team

(03:28):
out the play test cricket. You know that from last
year when they visited New Zealand with the second rate
side and yet here they are playing in the final.
So I think that the whole business of WTC is
probably in jeopardy the longer we go, because it's only
going to be the top six nations and no one

(03:48):
else will get a look in. I mean, if you
have a two tiered system, whether or not you have
promotion and relegation, I don't see how those other nations
in West Indies two could be one of them. One
of the greatest powers of the game historically. It might
even be England if they have a bad year or two.
I don't see how going to get up and fight
again against the top teams if this system comes into play.

(04:12):
So it looks it's a convenience really for those who
are controlling the game to do what they want to do,
and they'll doll had a bit of dosh to everyone else,
but it won't be enough to sustain Test cricket in
a meaningful way for the LAC nations.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Defindia, Australia and England played each other more often, how
much would that dilute the special nature of those series?

Speaker 3 (04:38):
I think it did a few years ago when we
played England back to back. We played in thirteen fifteen
and then nineteen that was over there, and then here
we played two series as well, So I think it
did at the time dilute the value of the contest.
But plenty of people turn up and a lot of

(05:00):
eyeballs out there, so you can justify it on the
basis of a commercial opera, and that's more and more
where we're going with this unfortunately, so I don't see
any way of stopping it. That's the problem. As much
as we might think that it's important to have this
expansion of the game, it will be limited to playing

(05:23):
at the Olympic Games T twenty competitions perhaps, but Test
cricket now it will only be played by those that
can afford.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
To That's a very sad state of affairs, isn't it, Jim,
Given the storied history of red ball international cricket.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Well, what we're saying is really test cricket will survive,
and a lot of people would be arguing that this
is the only way for it to survive. For the
countries that can afford to play continue to play it.
But we'll actually were really taking the game back to
where it was sixty seventy years ago, before any of well, Pakistan,

(06:04):
Sri Lanka, you name it. These other countries came into play.
So I think Test cricket is going to survive, but
not in the ideal form of trying to have more
countries playing Test cricket, because, as I say, they can't
afford to.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
What then of the West Indies, Jim this incredible cricket
nation that gave us greener chains, Richards Lloyd Doujon Marshall
Garner holding that wonderful team of the eighties. Am I
just being a bit naive and missed the idea to
suggest that they will continue to be a Test cricket participant.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Well, you could worry about South Africa similarly. I mean
they've always historically been a power until they have the
part ideas and they've come back quite strongly. But at
the moment they're a bit of this and that because
they're playing rosters compromised by people like the cock who
just want to play limited overs cricket, and the fact

(07:02):
that a lot of their players can only earn a
leaving by playing in T twenty franchises, not for their country.
So you've got an issue there as well. But the
West Indies is a very unusual case because really the
West Indies only exists as a cricket team. It's not
a democratic an economic power. It's a group of islands

(07:25):
in that part of the world. And you know, if
cricket's to be sustained at the next level, the Olympic
Games and the rest of it, will it be a
West Indies team or will it be Barbatas and Antigua
like the Comwealth Games. So it's under enormous pressure anyway
in terms of playing collectively in a meaningful way in

(07:48):
Test cricket. But well, at least in the short term,
thank goodness, Australia, it's playing three Tests against them over
there later in the year.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Indeed, So if we do look forward, then gim what
is the best way for Test cricket to survive and
hopefully thrive, you know, in the face of this, this
perpetual growth of T twenty cricket around the world, franchise cricket,
that sort of thing. Is this the best way that
as you've outlined the you know, you play if you

(08:16):
can pay or if it pays, And that's where we're
looking at the next little while.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Unfortunately, yes, I mean, you know, I don't want to
be a sort of pessimistic, cynical about it, But in
fact I'm very optimistic about the growth of cricket. But
Test cricket is only part of that. It's really through
the agency of white ball ten twenty that you're going
to see the growth of cricket men and women. I mean,

(08:43):
we're trying to get women to play more Test matches.
But goodness, gracious, dare I say it? News it It
won't play test cricket, will they? I've got an issue,
got an issue there. So I think, as I say,
I think there will be a way for Test cricketers
allor right, but it won't be in a futuristic way

(09:04):
that we imagined a few years ago when the number
of countries expanded and we were hoping, as I say,
that those peripheral teams like Afghanistan and Ireland in particular,
who recently came in will be part of it. I
just don't think it's going to work.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Just to finish, if we're talking money and we are,
how influential will India's desire in any decision making around
cricket continue to be?

Speaker 3 (09:35):
Oh, well, it's going to it's going to be the
way ahead. Really, what India wants India will get and
that transfers across to these ICC events, which basically give
the ICC the finance to continue to have the Champions Trophy,

(09:56):
the World Cups, the WTC for that matter. So if
India aren't supporting that, then it's going to change. It's
going to so we need to have their superpower, I suppose,
their control to sustain the game. That's the unfortunate situation

(10:17):
in some ways, but at the moment it seems to
be working. Okay. You've got to say, at least India
are playing a lot of Test cricket, a lot more
than Australia and South Africa for that matter, and I
worry more about the fact that because of the dollar,
Australia in particular, along with South Africa, will be playing

(10:39):
less Test cricket and more of the one day stuff.
You know, Australia did not play a Test match between
the end of that New Zealand series in March April
last year until November, and they're only playing ten Test
matches this year. So unfortunately, I think the dye is
cast in terms of the shape of the game, and

(11:01):
that's a worry. Jim.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
You're preach into the converted over here, we've got no
test cricket the first three months of the home summer,
or sorry, the three months of the calendar year. Normally
we look forward to red ball cricket here in January, February,
March and to April. None not a single international red
ball game to be seen. So yeah, it's an interesting
time ahead for the game on both sides of the
Tasman and around the world. Thanks for joining us across

(11:26):
New Zealand. Really appreciate your expertise. Jeers, Jason, all the best,
All the best to you too, Jim Jim Maxwell. There
a voice that is well known. He's seen a lot
of things in the game of cricket.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talk sed B weekends from midday or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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