‘It’s not ideal…’: Kane Williams shares disapproval with current schedule of World Test Championship and calls for a change

Former New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has asked for a change in the current schedule of the World Test Championship (WTC). He has talked about some specific timeframes being established that are specially dedicated to international cricket.

Williamson believes that such specific steps being taken might lead to the WTC becoming a ‘more level competition‘. The International Cricket Council (ICC) committee is set to meet in Zimbabwe in the future to discuss about the proposals that have been brought up to adjust the format of WTC for the upcoming 2025-27 cycle.

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“It comes back to scheduling. I love Test cricket and I’d love to see it stay and I’d love to see it be a pathway for young cricketers still, alongside the T20 format. If you can prioritise windows where teams are playing each other consistently and somewhat evenly, then I think it just makes it [the WTC] a slightly more level competition,” Williamson told ESPNCricinfo.

“Naturally, the fact that it’s (WTC schedule) different for each team is not ideal. Any time you get the opportunity to review after a two-year Test Championship window, to try and tweak it a little bit, that’s fine. It’s still in its infancy, really, as a competition, so you’re always going to look at those things… It’s tricky though: there’s 12 months in a year, right? That’s difficult,” he added.

Kane Williamson had led his team towards victory in the inaugural World Test Championship, and believes that providing context for a tournament is great thing, and that adjusting to the regulations of WTC is going to add significance.

“You put a tournament in front of somebody or a team, and they’re always quite keen to win it… Context is something that’s been spoken about for a while now, and it is great to see that there’s an effort to do that. It’s just how you keep tinkering it because there’s so many different opinions with teams, who they play and how you sort of continue to make it level,” Williamson further said.

The WTC 2023-24 final between Australia and South Africa is yet to be held, and is going to be held from June 11 to 15. Apart from that, New Zealand are going to play a two-match Test series against Zimbabwe, which is set to begin July 30.