England and South Africa, the two highest ranked sides in cricket have just finished a test series - it lasted a mere three matches. By November 2015 these two teams will have played each other only three times in nearly six years. Aside from the ashes there is only to be one five test series in the whole of international cricket up to 1/1/2020. In that time there will be 73 series of only two tests.

Meanwhile there will be 69 five ODI series and 13 seven ODI series. ODIs are fun, but ODI series cannot go on for more than three or so games or the matches risk becoming tedious and meaningless. Test matches on the other hand, with their capacity for draws, need a full five match series to develop and provide a meaningful measure of who is on top. Five match test series provide a level of drama that no ODI series can possibly hope to emulate.

We know ODIs make money, but the popularity of ODIs is based upon the personalities and the drama of cricket, drama which is engendered by test matches. The long term viability of cricket in all formats is dependent upon a healthy game at test level,

Please ICC, stop being short term, cut some of the meaningless ODIs and give us some proper test series.