The International Cricket Council's newly-elected chairman Greg Barclay on Monday conceded that the ambitious World Test Championship hasn't quite achieved what it intended to and the disruption caused by COVID-19 has only highlighted its "shortcomings". The World Test Championship schedule has been thrown haywire by the pandemic and the ICC has come up with a percentage allocation of points as all the scheduled series before the 2021 final at Lord's cannot be completed in a short span of time. Has the Test Championship given the format a fillip that it was meant to? "In short, I don't think so. The COVID has probably highlighted its shortcomings of the championship," Barclay, who took charge earlier this month, said during a virtual media conference for wire services.

The New Zealander feels that a lot of problems with the current cricketing calendar is due to the World Test Championship which was fitted in to popularise the format, something that didn't happen, according to him. "...the issues that we have already got, I wonder whether some of it was because of an attempt to develop a Test Championship, clearly designed to drive interest back into Test cricket, provide a bit of context and relevance around the Test matches," he said. While it was good in theory but has probably flopped in practice. "From an idealist's point of view, probably it had a lot of merit but practically, I do disagree, I am not sure whether it has achieved what it intended to do," he said. In fact, Barclay dropped a hint that the inaugural WTC could well be the last one as smaller members can't afford Test cricket championship anymore.