Cricket West Indies prepared to support major shift for Test cricket as long as one proviso is met

The chief executive of Cricket West Indies, Chris Dehring, says he is open to mooted change to the structure of Test cricket, but one issue takes priority.

The chief executive of Cricket West Indies is prepared to allow the former superpower to be relegated from the top tier of Test cricket as long as it is part of a workable financial model that makes the game viable in the Caribbean.

The Windies chief, Chris Dehring, is also open to his team playing regular four-day Tests but stresses that a move such as that one would only be tinkering “around the edges” rather than fundamentally addressing the chasm in financial clout between the haves and have-nots of world cricket.

Dehring said he was not fundamentally opposed to the idea of a mooted two-tier structure in Test cricket, but that the priority was creating a better revenue share system that allowed smaller Test nations to thrive.

The chief executive of Cricket West Indies is prepared to support a two-tier structure in Test cricket. Picture: AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan

India receives 38.5 per cent of ICC distributions under the current model - in the vicinity of $350 million annually, with other Test-playing nations all receiving splits of less than 10 per cent.

Dehring said that even under the current World Test Championship model, series such as the ongoing Frank Worrell Trophy duel between the Windies and Australia lacked context. The Windies have finished in the bottom two of all three WTC cycles to date.

Dehring says, at the moment, the battle for the Frank Worrell Trophy lacks context. Picture: Randy Brooks / AFP

“The relevance to most people is not there, and people cannot understand the relevance of these bilateral tours,” Dehring said.

“If we decide that we’re going to make a league out of it and play like a true league, which includes addressing the financial model, yeah, then I can see a future for Test cricket.

“In other words, we create windows where the league matches are being played, very much like the (UEFA) Nations League now in football. Dedicated windows for international cricket, and the league matches are played during those windows, and we have a point system that helps us to know whether we’re going to be promoted or or relegated.

Football super star Cristiano Ronaldo after winning the UEFA Nations League final with Portugal in 2025. Picture: John Macdougall / AFP

“I have no problem with a two-tier system, but you have to address the underpinning financial model, because it makes no sense of a two-tier system that just exacerbates the challenge. And the challenge is resources.

“So when West Indies play India, there’s a financial value to that game. I don’t have a problem with India being given a weighted distribution, but the West Indies are in that game, so there’s a fair distribution, and that will allow us and incentivise us to get to that whatever division one to get to play those games against India and so on.”

Four-day Tests are played occasionally outside the WTC - with Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan all currently shut out of the competition.

Dehring said a move to more regular four-day Tests could be beneficial for managing costs but that it would not be enough in isolation.

I”t might make it less costly, because it is a challenge to host because of the horrendous costs that are involved for a smaller country. But again, don’t tinker, address the financial model that underpins it all.”

With Saudi Arabia looking to enter the cricket landscape via its sovereign wealth fund, Dehring said that there was a sense of both caution and opportunity from cricket administrators about handling a potential LIV Golf-style entrance into the game.

“It came up because the Saudi prince was in the room at (June’s) World Cricket Connects conference. And the whispering in the corridors were one of both fear of the threat but also excitement of the opportunity. How do you harness this kind of revenues coming into the world cricket in a way that is not destructive? So that’s the challenge, I think, facing all of us.”