News of a new Cricket Champions league, met with great excitement, at our Sportsballshop office. Although not totally agreed, the fact that the ICC are talking seriously about it, means it is likely to happen, soon. The idea would be for all Test playing countries to play each other over a 4 year period. The top for would then play in semi's and a final to decide the best Test playing country. To finally have a tournament that breathed new life into the Test Match game would be fantastic. It might even make the West Indies wake up and enjoy the best form of the game. There are some problems associated with this new concept though. All Test match series would have to be of equal length, we currently have shorter series against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh but have a 5 match series against our arch rivals, Australia. The Ashes series against Australia, is the one series that makes big money for our county sides and could never be shortened. Likewise, the county scene would be angst to increase loss making series, against the smaller cricket playing nations. There would also be a problem about which Cricket Ball would be used. Dukes are used in England but, Kookaburra Cricket Balls are used in 85% of games worldwide. That would be a lucrative market to fight over. How this can be addressed on the world scale, will be down to the money men at the ICC. On paper it does seem a brilliant idea, lets hope the ball continues to role and we have our Test Match Champions League, up and running within 2 years. For Cricket Balls from Kookaburra, the worlds leading Cricket Ball manufacturer, go to www.sportsballshop.co.uk
