The 10 full member nations of the International Cricket Council have made "significant progress" on the future shape of the game, according to the world cricket governing body's Chief Executive David Richardson. Following a two-day cricket structures workshop held at the ICC's headquarters in Dubai, Richardson said in a statement that the member nations "have explored how to improve the quality of bi-lateral cricket".
"The focus has been on solutions that will grow fan interest and engagement by delivering high quality cricket with the best players playing in an environment where every match counts," the statement said. "Encouragingly there is an appetite from the ten full members for more context around all three formats of the game and we have consensus on a range of areas."
Some of the ideas discussed, according to the statement, were to have a "Test Champion playoff every two years" and involve more nations in the longer format of the game. More details on the concept of a Test Champion playoff were not revealed. The proposal for a two-tier structure in Test cricket, which was proposed earlier, has been withdrawn by the ICC, reported ESPNcricinfo. In this structure, Test cricket would be divided into two tiers, with promotion and relegation of teams. The proposal was opposed by the cricket boards of India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
The representatives of the member nations who took part in the workshop will now go back to their boards and discuss the ideas before the ICC develops a clear structure. The changes will not come into effect before 2019.