No World Test championship before 2017: ICC

Dubai: The much-anticipated ICC Test Championship will not take place before 2017 due to cricket`s world governing body`s prior commitments, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said on Monday.

The Test championship, which was to replace the 50-over ICC Champions Trophy, was initially scheduled for 2013 between the top four teams but Lorgat said that`s no longer going to happen in the proposed year. "At the last board meeting we decided that the first opportunity that we can play the World Test Championship is 2017. So I am disappointed that it is not going to take place sooner. I am afraid that is not happening in 2013," Lorgat said on the sidelines of the second day-night international between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Dubai today. "It is a reality of the commitments that we have got already through to 2015," he added. The championship has been seen as an effort to boost flagging interest in the five-day game in the times of Twenty20 cricket but the decision by the ICC has come as a big disappointment. "We attempted to form the World Test Championship which I think would have been a very good context to ensuring the primacy of Test match cricket. But again we will have wait for 2017 to see that as a reality," he added. PTI