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ICC finally gets the ball rolling on Test Championship

After an enforced delay, The International Cricket Council (ICC), the world governing body for cricket, has finally, officially launched the World Test Championship.

The ICC World Test Championship and the logo were launched in an short but impressive ceremony with ICC officials, the Pakistan and South African squads in attendance, at the opulent Ritz Carlton Hotel, late on Saturday night.

The World Test Championship will replace the ICC Champions Trophy, which was played in England for the last time this year.

The World Test Championship was originally scheduled to be launched in 2013 but ran into problems. Now, it is scheduled to be held in 2017 with England hosting the inaugural event.

The qualifying period for the event already began on May 1 this year and runs until December 31, 2016.

The top four Test teams will then battle it out for the Championship. The Championship carries a total prize money of $10 million (Dh36.7 million).

The format of the competition is yet to be decided though. “The qualifying period has already begun on May 1 with the England vs New Zealand series being the first one,” David Richardson, the ICC Chief Executive, said on Saturday.

“The objective of the ICC is to preserve all forms of cricket well into the future. If we need to support Tests, we need to support all formats including the Twenty20 and 50-over formats. The World Test Championship will add interest to bilateral series,” said Richardson.

Richardson revealed that the Maze for the No.1 Test team and the World Test Championship will be separate entities. “Obviously, the Maze is very important. We will still have the Maze for the No.1 Test team. That stays. But there will be a World Test Championship side by side,” he added.

The format is still up in the air but Richardson said that it will soon be worked out. “The format still needs to be worked out. We could have the last four play the semi-finals or a round robin format. There is a little bit of skepticism. It is because we have limited time and lot of things to work out. Hopefully, we can come up with a good format. Also, now, members know what the value of any series holds. Test cricket will become more valuable,” Richardson said.

Richardson said that they will take all steps to ensure that cricket boards would not be able to manipulate the qualifying period by adding, postponing or cancelling series to bump up their spot.

“Within 12 months, you cannot change the FTP (Future Tours Programme) without consent from the ICC Cricket Committee,” he said.

“We have to ensure that every nation have enough opportunities to play Test matches.”