‘Can you see a world where there are only three nations playing cricket’: Graeme Smith questions two-tier system for Tests | Cricket News

The rumors about the two-tier system in Test cricket have sparked quite a debate. South African adminrator Graeme Smith had strong views on the matter as the Proteas have reached the final of the World Test Championship 2025 in Lords, Smith would say about the need for South Africa, West Indies, and Sri Lanka to be stronger to improve cricket eco-system and questions “can you see a world where there are only three nations playing cricket in the future?”
“I was just looking at a note this morning at how much England and India are playing each other over the next period, and Australia and vice versa. It gets extremely hard for the other nations… India are probably the best because they are commercially so reliable for the other nations.”
Smith questions in what other sport it happens where only the top three teams play each other. “But where do you find the top three nations playing each other all the time? And you can only imagine in the next FTP cycle how that’s been tied up in the background,” Smith said on Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.
“How does the ICC create a structure that’s fair in the top three’s eyes? I think what world cricket needs is, it needs South Africa to be strong, the West Indies to be strong, needs Sri Lanka to get better. Otherwise,” he added
“We (South Africa) are in the World Test Championship (WTC) final; we’ve got a chance to win the mace. I think that’s the key,” Smith said while talking to Sky Sports. “You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, and South Africa has done that. I think over the last couple of years, their win percentages are pretty decent if you go and look over a period of time,” Smith said on South Africa.
Former West Indies captain Clive Llyod was unimpressed the suggestion of a two-tier Test system as well. “I think it will be terrible for all those countries who work so hard to get to Test match status and now they’ll be playing among themselves in the lower section,” Lloyd was quoted saying in the Trinidad & Tobago Guardian.

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