DUBAI – The ICC Cricket Committee gets together in Mumbai on May 28 and 29to discuss, among other things, the playing conditions for the World TestChampionship. The Championship begins after the 2019 World Cup, with thefinal is set to be played from June 10, 2021 and the recommended locationbeing England.

Acording to *Cricinfolink>*,the potential changes – though not many in number – are significant. Forexample, the committee, headed by Anil Kumble, will deliberate on whetherto do away with the toss, the nature of the points system that will governthe Championship as well as the quality of pitches.

Once the cricket committee finalises its recommendations, the ICC’s chiefexecutives’ committee will take the discussion further during the annualconference in Dublin in June.

Here are some of the more eye-catching potential changes to the conditions,as revealed in a document obtained by ESPNcricinfo. These were presentedduring the ICC’s quarterly meeting in Kolkata in April.

*Day-night Tests*

India have said no to playing a day-night Test in Adelaide this year, butin the Test Championship that may no longer be an option. In the newplaying conditions, it is at the discretion of the home board to schedule aday-night Test in a series. The document states that “the agreement of thetouring team will be required,” only if the host side wants to play morethan one day-night game in the series. And if a day-night Test isscheduled, then the touring team is entitled to play one day-night warm-upgame (of a minimum of two days).

*Toss*

The ICC’s concerns about the quality of pitches in international cricketare reflected in a couple of potential changes. The first – doing away withthe toss – is the most radical. More details on that story herelink>.

*Unfit pitches*

In a sense, this is almost as radical an idea as doing away with the toss.Given the number of pitches ICC officials considered to be poor over thelast few years, they want to introduce tangible and severe penalties forsides that create unfit pitches. “If a match is abandoned because the pitchor outfield is too dangerous for play to continue, and the pitch issubsequently rated as UNFIT by the match referee, the match will beconsidered to have been won by the visiting team when the competitionpoints are allocated for that series.”

*Points system*

The ICC has asked the cricket committee to recommend whether points shouldbe allocated for both match and series results. “It (cricket committee)will also recommend the appropriate weighting of a Draw compared to a Win.”

The committee will discuss potential points penalties for poor behaviour byplayers and slow over rates but the document says these are “unlikely to berecommended”.

*Five-day Tests*

Remember the hoopla about four-day Tests? Not happening in the Testchampionship. All those Tests, the document makes very clear, will beplayed over five days. And there will have to be a minimum gap of threedays between Tests.

*Ball*

As is already the case, the choice of ball to be used will remain with thehost country during the league phase. For the final the ball will “likely”be the same as that used to play Tests in the country that hosts the summitclash (England). – Agencies