Ireland Head Coach, Heinrich Malan has echoed the sentiment of introducing a two-tier Test Championship in International cricket. The idea of having two-tier systems in Test cricket has been an ongoing debate that has the cricketing world divided, with one school of thought believing the chasm between the quality of sides is apparent, while the counter argument is if teams aren't given a chance to play against top-ranked teams they will not improve.

The current format sees the top nine Test nations face each other in the World Test Championship isolating remaining three Test playing nations – Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Ireland – who are not part of the competition.

Malan has recently coached Ireland to three successive wins against Afghanistan in UAE and home and away against Zimbabwe. Ireland is set to face Bangladesh in a two match test series starting Tuesday, it will only be their second match this year. The restrictive nature of the current model has meant that Ireland has only played 10 tests in their history despite their first match being all the way back in 2018.  

If ICC decided to make two tiers for Test cricket, Ireland would be integrated into the multi-year competition structure and be able to play a lot more Test Matches. Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Ireland would be able to compete with Pakistan, West Indies and Bangladesh in the second tier. 

Malan said:

“The fact that there could be promotion and relegation will really give it some context and so I’d be very much in favour, in general, and it would mean more Test cricket,” 

“We put a high price on Test cricket. The fact that we don't play it that often heightens that a little bit as well,”

“We’ve played a fair few one-off Test matches and hopefully, as we move forward, we can keep seeing two Tests taking place as a minimum. I know it’s not always viable, but that’s definitely something that we would be pushing for.”

The only previous two match Test series the Irish played was against Sri Lanka where they lost both games in a 2-0 series loss. A two-tier system would allow them to be able to improve in the format by playing far more consistently.