Quote:BCCI president Anurag Thakur has said his board will oppose the proposed two-tier Test system to "protect the interests" of smaller member nations. As the head of the powerful BCCI, Thakur's statement lends heft to the criticism of the proposal by Sri Lanka Cricket and the Bangladesh Cricket Board, even as the boards of Australian and New Zealand have welcomed the move.

"The BCCI is against the two-tier Test system because the smaller countries will lose out and the BCCI wants to take care of them," Thakur told the New Indian Express. "It is necessary to protect their interests."

The proposal to split Test cricket into two tiers - with seven nations in tier one, and five, including two new Test nations, in the second tier - was mooted at the ICC's annual conference, in Edinburgh, where ICC chief executive David Richardson advocated a "proper competition structure", with promotion and relegation, for Test cricket to have greater context. "Unless we can give some meaning to these series beyond the rankings and a trophy, then interest in Test cricket will continue to waver," Richardson said. "The same applies if we allow uncompetitive Test cricket to take place too often."