KOLKATA – India and Pakistan will not play each other in the first cycle ofthe World Test Championshiplink>beginningin 2019, David Richardson, chief executive officer of the InternationalCricket Council (ICC), said.

“With the case of India and Pakistan, we have been a little bit pragmatic.It has been decided that they will not play each other in the firsttwo-year cycle,” said Richardson, at a media conference after a series ofICC meetings that began here on Sunday and ended on Thursday.

The world Test league will comprise fthree-Test series, home and away witheach team playing six teams, said Richardson. It has been decided that sixseries, three each home and away, for each team will comprise thecompetition, he said.

“It was difficult in the case of the Tests league in particular. While youhave a situation of teams wanting to play five-Test series, trying to fiteveryone playing everyone in a two-year period is not that easy.Consideration was given to extending it to three years but maintaininginterest then becomes difficult,” said Richardson, explaining how theformat was arrived at.

“The devil, as they say, lies in the details and there were fears as towhich fixtures would comprise the competition. All those fears have beenput to rest. The fixtures will be out soon,” he said.

Bilateral series between India and Pakistan have been put on hold becauseof relations between the countries; something that Richardson said was outof the area of influence of the ICC.