South Africa’s one-off four-day Test match against Zimbabwe might get “Test” status but only as a trial exercise. Cricket South Africa’s proposal to play a four-day Test against Zimbabwe in Port Elizabeth will get a Test status, but the decision rests with the ICC, which will take the final call in the board meeting in Auckland in October.
Four day Tests have been on ICC’s agenda since the T20 format has gripped the fans attention all over the world. However, ICC’s cricket committee forum has voted against the idea of dropping a day from the traditional Test match.
In June 2017, during the ICC annual conference, the cricket committee said that they would be primarily looking to establish cricket structures; they were not against trying the four-day Test format. Cricket South Africa Chief Executive Officer who was involved in discussion with the BCCI regarding their decision to drop the boxing day Test because of India’s series against Sri Lanka, feels that four-day Test match is the perfect way to include Ireland and Afghanistan to the Test environment.
Lorgat said:
“We recognize that there is a place for higher-ranked teams to play the lower-ranked teams or even the lower-ranked teams amongst themselves in four-day Test match cricket, I hope that apart from being a trial, we could have it as a permanent arrangement.”
Lorgat also said that he spoke with the South African management about the four-day Test match and they were supportive of the format and wanted to have a trial match with Zimbabwe in December.