The Board of Cricket in India (BCCI) may have announced Rs 25 lakh as reward for each player for having helped the Test team reach the pinnacle in the ICC world rankings, but the board surely has not done enough to help India sustain its position.

MS Dhoni and his men will not be playing enough Tests to earn points for staying ahead of the pack. In fact, India will not be playing more than two Test matches till November next year. In December 2010, they are scheduled to tour South Africa, followed by a tour of West Indies in April, post the World Cup.

"It is about money and how different countries can earn out of playing each other. It is always going to be a major factor for the ICC to deal with as well, unless of course only four countries play Test cricket," he says.

If the captains’ representative in ICC has this to say, the future is bleak: "It doesn’t matter what the (captains’ representative’s) contribution is. He has to be listened to. If the concerned authorities don’t do anything, you can talk as much as you want but there will be no point," Sangakkara says.

That should explain India’s predicament, given the bulk of T20 and One-day matches they play as compared to Tests. Given the kind of crowd capacity that Indian stadiums draw for the shorter formats, it’s obvious why India aren’t playing Tests. For example, the T20 match scheduled to be held in Nagpur’s 45,000 capacity stadium on Wednesday was sold out completely a week ago. In comparison, the Test match at the same ground last year was played in front of near empty stands.