ICC move closer to introducing world Test championship

CAPE TOWN: International cricket chiefs recommended that the World Cup, a gruelling six-week marathon, be slashed from 14 to 10 teams.

They also backed a Test championship to be introduced by 2013.

The meeting of the International Cricket Council's Chief Executives' Committee (CEC) called for the ICC to introduce league championships for both Test and one-day international cricket in order to introduce context for future tours.

The top four teams in the Test league should qualify for a championship play-off with the first play-off should be staged in 2013.

The chief executives suggested that a one-day league should run from April 2011 until April 2014, culminating in the crowning of a one-day international champion.

The league championship would be separate from the four-yearly World Cup.

The meeting also recommended major changes to the formats of both the World Cup and the ICC World Twenty20.

It was recommended that the number of teams in the World Cup should be reduced from the 14 that will compete in next year's event to 10, while 16 teams should play in the Twenty20, up from the 12 that competed earlier this year.

There was also a call for a Twenty20 international rankings table.

ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat, who chaired the meeting, said he was excited by the proposals.

"Restructuring international cricket is a significant strategic challenge and one that must be dealt with. I am grateful to the CEC and its working group for making such far-reaching proposals," he said.

Doug Bollinger,Mike Hussey finally land in India

Tired Twenty20 duo Doug Bollinger and Mike Hussey straggled into the Australian team hotel on

Tuesday well aware of their extremely narrow window to prepare for the first Test match against India.

Bollinger and Hussey arrived in Chandigarh at the same time

"We'll be right to go, we've got a good couple of days of training coming up and we'll look after ourselves and we'll be fine," said Bollinger.

"We're a little bit tired, it's been a long flight, but we're good and we'll just chill out for a couple of days and make sure we're right to go."

Hussey said it had been strange to see the Australian team arrive in India without him, but was focused on making sure he was right to go by Friday morning at Mohali.

"It's not ideal, but it's the best we can do, we'll just make sure we're really smart the next couple of days and get ourselves prepared as best we can," he said.

"I'm sure we've got good background staff and they'll get us in the best possible shape to get going for Friday.

"The next couple of days we've got to get the head right and get thinking more Test match cricket.