Greg Barclay
Greg Barclay. Credits: RCB

The chairman of the International Cricket Council, Greg Barclay, has announced that neutral umpires would be reinstated.

It was because of the COVID-19 outbreak, that the ICC had to nominate home umpires.

The World Test Championship Is Here To Stay: Greg Barclay

“I think in the COVID days, the home umpires got some exposure to stand for Test umpiring. It split things a bit wider. If you look at the stats, you can see that there was a pretty much thereabout the teams’ performances than what we had the neutral umpires,” Barclay said.

Neutral Umpires
Umpires. Image Credits: Twitter

“We are now on the other side of the COVID and we are reintroducing the neutral umpiring arrangements which was decided in the board meeting we had a couple of weeks ago. We will see neutral umpires back up and running again. I can’t give you the date due to operational issues but soon.”

Barclay also shed light on the ICC World Test Championship, stating that he believes the tournament has aided the format’s growth.

“Now we are in the second cycle of ICC Test Championship. The first cycle was very successful. What we did at the ICC is to give more relevance and try to make them good context to maintain and drive to make it more successful,” he pointed out.

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James Anderson, KL Rahul
James Anderson, KL Rahul talking with the umpire. Image-Twitter

“Every country now has a chance to make it to the Test Championship final. If you look at New Zealand, we did that against the odds. There was luck along the way. Australia’s South Africa tour is an example.

“You will never know what is going to happen. It also ensures all the playing countries have a minimum commitment to all other teams and play Test cricket.

“Test cricket is still a great part of the cricketing landscape. I know that T20 profile-wise stands at the top. Test Championship is a very much part of the strategy of maintaining all the teams get equal opportunity to play,” he added.

Currently, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are fighting it out in a Test series for important championship points.