Criticising the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) conduct of the World Test Championship, the latest edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack has termed it a “shambles masquerading as a showpiece.”

The publication of the sport’s annual bible came days after the recent ICC board meeting in Zimbabwe where the future of the WTC came up for discussion. While the ICC is yet to come clear on the outcome of the meeting, multiple sources suggested that there was no changes to the duration of the cycle, which currently is held in a two year’s gap.

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Wisden editor Lawrence Booth, however, has suggested a four-year all‑play‑all format, highlighting South Africa will be playing the WTC final at Lord’s this summer despite not playing Australia or England throughout the cycle.

Booth further suggested the implementation of a full round-robin format, where the top nine Test teams play each other both home and away, besides ensuring a minimum three-match series to preserve the depth and competitiveness of Test cricket.

“Among the first items in (the ICC chair Jay) Shah’s in-tray ought to be the World Test Championship, a shambles masquerading as a showpiece,” Booth writes. “This is not South Africa’s fault. It may even be to their benefit, if the path from laughing stocks to Lord’s persuades their board that Test cricket is worth saving.

“The ICC cannot allow the championship to continue as if designed on the back of a fag packet. Double its length to four years, like football and rugby, and ensure the top nine in the rankings all play each other, home and away, over a series of at least three Tests.”

Booth also wrote about BCCI’s growing influence in world cricket, while highlighting former BCCI secretary Jay Shah’s appointment as the ICC chair in December last year.

“The communal shrug that met Shah’s appointment confirmed a sorry truth: 2024 was the year cricket gave up any claim to being properly administered, with checks, balances, and governance for the many, not the few. India already had the monopoly: now they had hotels on Park Lane and Mayfair.”

India’s Jasprit Bumrah and Smriti Mandhana were adjudged the leading men’s and women’s cricketer in the world by the publication.