Story World Test Championship | Story Abandoned | Has been used as an info-dump

[Aislabie]

2016

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Test Championship is all systems go
The ICC has announced a tweak to its original plans for a World Test Championship, instead planning for a six-team tournament. Qualification is to be based upon the World Test rankings, which have been comprehensively re-structured since the expansion of the FTP to fifteen teams following the 2014 Popping Crease Report.

The world's best will be vying for the Championship.

The six nations involved are expected to be include: the two top-ranked nations from the Asia region; the top-ranked nation from the Europe region; the top-ranked nation from the Oceania region; the top-ranked nation from the Africa region; the top-ranked nation from the Americas region.

Additionally, despite India's power and influence on the ICC's Executive Committee, the Committee voted 3-2 in favour of hosting the inaugural Championship in Australia.

Darren Lehmann eagerly anticipates the WTC.

Australian coach Darren Lehmann is quoted to be pleased with the upcoming tournament. He told journalists: "Aw, yeah, sure, we're all gunning for the chance to show that we're the best in the world in front of our own fans." When asked about the tournament structure, he also seemed positive: "It's going to be four weeks of high-stakes Test cricket, with the best teams in the world on the best grounds in the world. What could go wrong?"

So, four weeks, seven Test matches, and one World Champion. This could be spectacular.


Next up, we'll preview the chances of the two Asian nations in the tournament. We hope to see you with us.​

 

[Ohm]

Yeah! Nice one. Presentation is spectacular. Well structured and well developed composition answered me, why you're part of writing team. Well done, keep it up.

 

[Aislabie]

Yeah! Nice one. Presentation is spectacular. Well structured and well developed composition answered me, why you're part of writing team. Well done, keep it up.

Cheers I've added in the little bit I forgot earlier - the links work too

 

[Gaurav_7]

Looking forward to this! Let's see how this goes. Good luck.

 

[Aislabie]

ASIA

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The first two qualifiers: India and Pakistan

3rd |

India |110 pts

The Indian team has gone through its regeneration period and come out of the other end stronger. They've been superb in the last twelve months, and have finally managed to turn around the miserable overseas form that saw them plummet as low as fourth in the Test rankings. Their power and influence in the Executive Committee cannot be underestimated either, especially when they can just pick and choose the tours that will benefit their rankings when necessary. But they have been undeniably excellent, and are genuine challengers in this tournament.

Arguably past his best, but Zaheer Khan is still here.

Squad: Dhoni , Dhawan, Vijay, Pujara, Kohli, Sharma, Rahane, Rayudu, Mukund, Jadeja, Ashwin, Aaron, Yadav, Sharma, Zaheer, Shami, Kumar

6th |

Pakistan |101 pts

Their inconsistency cost them dearly time and again in recent years, with their loss to Zimbabwe going down as the nadir. However, when push came to shove they delivered in the winner-takes-all Test series with Sri Lanka a couple of months ago, which was effectively their qualifying series for the Championship. On their day, Pakistan could beat anyone, but this is not a young side. Their skipper is the oldest man in the competition, and he will not be the only one who will be expected to retire once it all dies down.

This is an ageing side, but none the less potent.

Squad: Misbah , Manzoor, Jamshed, Hafeez, Shafiq, Akmal, Shehzad, Younis, Sharjeel, Sarfraz, Irfan, Wahab, Junaid, Usman, Rehman, Ajmal, Zulfiqar

7th |

Sri Lanka |99 pts
8th |

Bangladesh |68 pts
14th |

Afghanistan |28 pts

Make no mistake, there are some mighty fine cricketers who have missed out on this tournament. Sri Lanka missed out by the narrowest of margins after a last ditch run-chase saw Pakistan prevail over them. Tragically, this stripped Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene of the the opportunity to try their strength in this competition. On balance, though, any team that continues to rely on Nuwan Pradeep as a pace spearhead should not be surprised if it does not win Test matches.

Bangladesh, though, have shown lots of improvement lately. Mominul Haqu has flourished as a Test batsman, while Taskin Ahmed has burst onto the scene as a Test bowler, but frankly, they don't have the outright strength to burst into the top six at the moment. Maybe they will be able to change this in time for the next edition of the competition.

Finally, we have Afghanistan. They've struggled to adapt to the longest format not with the ball, but with the bat. Too many of their batsmen have been too impetuous too often, and as a result they have often left their bowlers with too much to do. Not that that has stopped the likes of Hamid Hassan, Dawlat Zadran and Fareed Ahmad from scrambling a couple of victories. Rahmat Shah, though, has just been left with too much responsibility with willow in hand.

So, the first two of the six nations on show are India are and Pakistan.

Tomorrow we will look at the Oceanian qualifier. No prizes for guessing who that is.


​

 

[Iridium]

New Zealand obviously

 

[HawkAussie]

Its Australia

 

[garverpaul]

Its gonna be australia

 

[Aislabie]

OCEANIA

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Under The Southern Cross

2nd |

Australia |117 pts

Darren Lehmann has done a masterful job with the Australian team since he took over their stewardship ahead of the back-to-back Ashes series in 2013. It was thought that the 5-0 Ashes sweep would be a flash in the pan, what with the ages of the key men from that series: Rogers, Haddin, Harris and Johnson. Two of those men have since retired, but have been ably replaced by the likes of Shaun Marsh, Phil Hughes, and Alex Doolan. Meanwhile, the bowling attack has been largely unchanged for the last couple of years: Pattinson, Coulter-Nile, Faulkner and Muirhead have all been in and around the team, but for key games, Lehmann has tended to revert to the Ashes quartet. The Aussies were very unfortunate to lose Shaun Marsh to a serious hamstring injury ahead of the Championship, but that opens the door for Cameron White and George Bailey.

David Warner's flashy style could define the WTC.

Squad: Clarke , Warner, Doolan, Hughes, Marsh, Khawaja, Smith, White, Bailey, Wade, Faulkner, Johnson, Harris, Coulter-Nile, Siddle, Pattinson, Lyon, Muirhead

4th |

New Zealand |106 pts

You can't help but feel desperately sorry for New Zealand: despite a meteoric rise in recent years, they were unable to force their way into the tournament for the top six nations in the world... despite being ranked fourth. All they lack is a genuine spinner; they have otherwise put together a complete Test XI. Batting wise, their top-seven of Rutherford, Cachopa, Williamson, Taylor, McCullum, Anderson and Watling has been as consistent as anyone else's, and the seam bowling has been better still. If this tournament reaches a second edition, they may well qualify.

The Kiwis can feel hard done by at missing out.

Tomorrow we will look at the European qualifier. Still no prizes.


​

 

[Iridium]

So New Zealand is 4th but don't make it in. Pakistan is 6th and make it through. Makes total sense.

 

[Aislabie]

So New Zealand is 4th but don't make it in. Pakistan is 6th and make it through. Makes total sense.

It's an ICC tournament - I'm trying to keep things realistic.

Don't worry, though, there's going to be a backstory to all of this later...

 

[Iridium]

BCCIlluminati.

 

[CG123]

Kind of off topic, but in real life I think they should do something similar for the World Cup, especially when they go back down to ten teams. E.g. have 3 Asian teams, 2 Oceanic, 1 African, 1 American, and 1 European directly qualify, and then have two home and away (with a neutral decider if needed) playoffs between Asia 4, Africa 2, Europe 2, and Oceania 3/America 2 (with a prior playoff between them). Or even something like this for the Champions Trophy, which would add something more to it. Pretty much all other sports have proper qualification systems in place for their World Cups/major tournaments, while cricket still relies on their world rankings which I think we all know don't mean much.

 

[Aislabie]

EUROPE

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Lions' Pride

5th |

England |103 pts

When Flower, Cook, Pietersen and Ashley Giles all clattered out of their jobs in 2014, it looked like English cricket could be on a long, dark road to nowhere. They had questions hanging over numbers two, three and four in the batting order, over two of their three seamers, their skipper, their spinner and their gloveman. It wasn't pretty. But when the new faces were brought in, they started performing. Moeen Ali at three also provided some offies to take the pressure off Borthwick; Steven Davies doubled as both gloveman and opener; Eoin Morgan came in as a batsman and skipper, and their problems were solved. It took a while for all of these individuals to meld into a team, but they never dropped out of the top six and are back to moving in the right direction now.

Davies answered the opening and keeping questions.

Squad: Morgan , Cook, Davies, Wheater, Ali, Bell, Bairstow, Robson, Roy, Root, Stokes, Woakes, Plunkett, Borthwick, Onions, Mills, Roland-Jones, Anderson, Broad

11th |

Ireland |46 pts

The Irish had been banging down the door to Test status for far too long when it was finally granted to them, but by then of course they had to try to cope without Eoin Morgan, Boyd Rankin and Trent Johnston. Morgan, who was by that time the England captain, had no interest in returning, but they were at least able to tempt Boyd Rankin back across the Irish sea. TJ joined the coaching staff. They were outclassed early on in a couple of departments, but they've still produced some notable performances against the likes of Zimbabwe. Maybe in a decade's time...

The Irish have done okay after making a big step up.

The next qualifier will be from the African region: hint, it isn't Zimbabwe. Or Rwanda.


​

 

[Iridium]

It'll be Niger.