ICC warns cricketing nations to play 'maximum Test matches over four years' or lose Test status

The International Cricket Council's (ICC) cricket committee has warned cricket-playing countries that they could risk losing their Test status unless they played a 'minimum number of Test matches over a four-year period'.

According to a statement, the committee, chaired by former India captain Anil Kumble and featuring former England skipper Andrew Strauss, was concerned by several recent examples of Test matches being postponed to make way for one-day games, Sport24 reports.

The statement further said that the committee recommended that all Test playing members should be required to play a minimum number of Test matches over a four-year period in order to maintain their Test status

Although the committee approved of all the three formats of the game, the statement said that it repeated its support for the strategy of ensuring an optimum balance and a clear differentiation between the three formats, and stressed for the need to ensure that Test cricket, needed support if it was to retain its place at the pinnacle of cricket.

The committee also stated that it supported proposals for a World Test Championship, saying that it also backed the concept of a Test play-off to determine the qualifiers for this event.

The report further said that although Test encounters such as the Ashes between England and Australia remain popular with spectators, other five-day games remain a difficult sell with many fans unable or unwilling to attend.

ICC's cricket committee recently hit the headlines when Australia's Tim May, chief executive of The Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA), was replaced as a players' representative on the ICC cricket committee by India's Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, the report added.