Progress owards establishing a world test championship has been unsatisfactory, International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat says.
Lorgat was in Dunedin to launch the 2010 ICC under-19 World Cup, being held in New Zealand, and told the Otago Daily Times the international body was committed to establishing a world test competition, but little headway has been made.
"We haven't been able to make the kind of progress that would satisfy us," Lorgat said.
"It is still best described as a work in progress.
"We are not fixated on a championship model but we certainly want to try and create a contest."
Getting the world's cricket boards to agree to a format and scheduling could prove tricky.
"I think we have to appreciate that there are a lot of existing contracts in place and our members have their own icon events to protect."
The summers are becoming congested, with an increasing diet of limited-overs cricket raising questions as to whether all three versions of the game can continue to flourish.
Lorgat believes they can.
"We've always said we've got three viable formats and I think that has proved to be correct because about 18 months back there were doubts about test cricket.
"But the quality of test matches we've seen over the last year has silenced that debate."
Sixteen teams will contest the under-19 World Cup, which begins in mid-January.
Queenstown is hosting group B matches.
