ICC floats two-tier Test cricket idea, eyes Champions League T20 revival in 2025

Big changes could be coming to cricket—on two very different fronts. At its recent annual general meeting in Singapore, the ICC quietly set up a new working group to look into the possibility of splitting Test cricket into a two-tier system. Yes, that’s right. Test matches, the long, slow, stubborn format that purists cling to like an old radio, might be getting its own promotion-relegation model.

A forgotten T20 tournament could return. Test cricket? It might just get interesting again

The panel, headed by ICC’s new CEO Sanjog Gupta, includes top brass from England and Australia—two boards that have been nudging this idea along for a while now. The idea on the table? Break down the World Test Championship into two parts, six teams in each. If it happens, the new format might kick in with the 2027 cycle. The hope is it’ll stop so many dull, one-sided series from dragging on and instead crank up the stakes a bit. At the very least, it gives Australia, India, and England more chances to play each other, which is what a lot of the suits want anyway.

There’s a lot to iron out, of course—who gets relegated, who even agrees to this, and how smaller nations will stay afloat if pushed down a tier. But the working group is expected to report back by the end of the year. So things are clearly moving.

On a very different note, there’s talk of bringing back the Champions League T20. Yes, the same tournament that once mashed up IPL giants and obscure domestic teams from around the world, before quietly disappearing in 2014. It was messy. No one really knew what the point of it was half the time, and the marketing was all over the place. But when it did land, the Champions League T20 threw up these strange, brilliant matchups you’d never see otherwise, like Trinidad’s domestic team squaring up against an IPL heavyweight on a random Tuesday.

The last time anyone was bothered with it, CSK took the trophy home in Bengaluru after beating KKR in an all-IPL final. That was 2014, but since then, the calendar’s just gotten messier with more leagues, more double-headers, and less space to breathe. But weirdly enough, there’s momentum now to bring CLT20 back. India, England, and Australia are all on board, which probably tells you everything about who’s calling the shots.

If it does come back next year, expect a leaner, slicker version, but one that still tries to plug that oddly specific nostalgia gap for people who remember New South Wales playing Trinidad & Tobago on a muggy October night. Why now? Why not. It’s cricket. Things disappear for a decade, then just turn up again.

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