WTC champions South Africa will not have a Boxing Day Test this year
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is likely to sanction four-day Tests for the World Test Champions (WTC) 2027-29 which is a big boost for smaller Test-playing nations, according to a report by The Guardian.
The world’s top nine Test nations will be part of the 2025-27 cycle with the 2023-25 concluding with South Africa beating Australia in the final to lift silverware after a gap of 27 years.
England, India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh, Australia, Pakistan and New Zealand will compete for a place in the next cycle. The report said that ICC chair Jay Shah has shown interest in four-day Tests from the next WTC cycle so teams can play more matches without prolonging the schedule of the series.
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In the 2025-27 cycle, which is set to begin with the series against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on Tuesday, has an initial schedule of 27 Test series out of which 19 bilaterals are two-match series.
This is due to ICC allowing only five-day Tests for the new cycle. The big three of the cricketing world – England, Australia and India – have been playing five-Test series for quite a while. However, the reigning champions South Africa will not have a traditional Boxing Day Test, bucking a trend of over 110 years.
Proteas pacer Anrich Nortje raised the same issue saying there is no fun in just the big three playing long series against each other.
“If you want to see more Test cricket, there’s no point in the big three playing each other the whole time. South Africa definitely needs more Test matches just like some other countries as well. And I think Zimbabwe plays more Test matches than South Africa this year. Nothing against Zimbabwe, but we’ve sort of proven ourselves over the years. So yeah, it’s a great question and hopefully there can be some changes,” Nortje said in a recent interview with Hindustan Times.
Sri Lanka, who are also part of the WTC, have only four Tests scheduled for the entirety of 2025. Retiring Lankan great Angelo Matthews has raised the same issue before the first Test against Bangladesh in Galle.
“I feel there has to be a minimum of 10 matches at least [in a year]. Teams like England, India or Australia are playing 15-plus games a year. Why can’t we play? We can. If we keep pushing, I mean, we have to. We have won World Cups. We have done so much for cricket as a nation, and we deserve to play Test cricket, just like Australia, India and England,” Matthews said.
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