The International Cricket Council (ICC) is ready to sanction four-day Tests for smaller nations in the 2027-29 World Test Championship cycle however India, Australia and England can still play the standard five-day matches, in accordance a report right here.
The transfer to scale back matches by someday could be a big change and will help smaller nations to play extra Tests and longer sequence.
“During discussions last week at the WTC final at Lord’s, the ICC chair, Jay Shah, is understood to have expressed his support for four-day Tests, with a view to sanctioning them in time for the 2027-29 WTC cycle,” a report in ‘The Guardian’ newspaper stated.
“England, Australia and India would still be permitted to schedule five-Test series of five-day matches for the Ashes, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the newly named Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, the first iteration of which begins with the first Test between England and India at Headingley on Friday (June 17, 2025).” The ICC first sanctioned four-day Tests for bilateral contests in 2017. England performed Zimbabwe over 4 days at Trent Bridge final month after four-day Tests towards Ireland in 2019 and 2023.
According to the report, “many smaller nations are reluctant to host Tests due to the time they take out of the schedule and the cost, but a move to four-day cricket would enable an entire three-Test series to be played in less than three weeks.” “In four-day Tests the playing hours are extended to mandate a minimum of 98 overs per day rather than 90 overs to mitigate the time lost,” it stated.
“South Africa’s threadbare itinerary despite being crowned world champions in the thrilling final against Australia at Lord’s last week has further highlighted the issue, and focused minds on the need for change,” it added.
The 2025-27 World Test Championship will, nevertheless, will proceed underneath the present format of five-day matches.
It begins with Sri Lanka internet hosting Bangladesh in a two-Test sequence on Tuesday.
Of the 27 Test sequence to be performed amongst 9 nations contesting in the 2025-27 cycle, 17 will characteristic simply two-match affairs whereas there can be six sequence of three matches.
England, Australia and India will all play a five-Test sequence every towards the opposite.
Published – June 17, 2025 12:53 pm IST
