Former England captain Michael Vaughan has thrown his support a revamp of Test cricket that would introduce a two-tier system to the sport.
The Melbourne Age reports that bosses from Australia and England are set to meet with Jay Shah, the new chair of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and former India chief, to discuss a radical rethink of the red-ball format.
The report suggests that the nations are considering introducing a schedule that would allow the trio to schedule men’s series against one another more often, with The Ashes and Border-Gavaskar Trophy contested twice in every three years, rather than twice in every four as the current structure allows.
The 12 nations currently playing men’s Test cricket could be split into tiers of seven and five, with New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka joining the ‘Big Three’ in the top tier.
That would leave the West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Bangladesh and Afghanistan in tier two.
The ICC’s current Future Tours Programme, which sets the schedule for nations, runs out in 2027. Talks are set to begin this year about its replacement as boards look to maximise television broadcast revenue and combat the threat of franchise T20 leagues.
And Vaughan feels that the proposals would be a welcome development.
“Been saying this for years,” Vaughan, who was commentating on the Australia-India series, said on X. “It has to happen.”
Series featuring India, Australia and England generate significantly more revenue than against other nations, with bumper crowds enjoyed for the recent five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy clash Down Under.
A record crowd of 373,879 spectators attended the fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with the final encounter in Sydney also seeing strong audiences.
Critics of the proposal would suggest that any move to add tiers would only further hasten the decline of red-ball cricket in nations that are already struggling financially.
The ICC agreed a new revenue sharing model that saw India, Australia and England take even more of the resources on offer within the game.
Despite the introduction of the World Test Championship adding greater context to all series, the trio already play more matches against each other than other nations.
England will play their first Test against Zimbabwe since 2004 this summer and have not hosted Bangladesh since 2010.
