Former West Indies captain Sir Clive Lloyd, who led them to success in the 1975 and 1979 World Cups, has criticised the plans, saying they “must be stopped now”.

”It will be terrible for all those countries who work so hard to get to Test-match status and now they’ll be playing among themselves in a lower section,” Lloyd, 80, said.

“How are they going to make it to the top? When you play against better teams, you improve. That’s how you know how good you are, or how bad you are. I am very disturbed.

“The better system would be to give the teams the same amount of money so they can get the tools to improve.”

West Indies were unbeaten in Tests between 1980 and February 1995, but they have struggled in recent years, with their last series win coming in February 2023 against Zimbabwe.

Their last series win against a team that would be in the proposed tier one was against England in March 2022.

They did pull off a famous win against Australia in Brisbane in January 2024 to draw the series.

”We struggle a lot, we need special dispensation,” said Lloyd. ”Some at the bottom are not playing Test matches and some are playing a world of Test matches.

“The system is not right. They have to sit down and work it out, that’s what they’re there for. That’s their duty, that’s their job to do that.”

Former England batter Ebony Rainford-Brent is also against the proposals.

“If we just see more and more of the big guns going against each other, great, I’m sure it would be entertaining, but what does it mean for the game?” she told 5 Live.

“The reality is that we’re playing in a global game, and what we do want – just to play a couple of countries to keep the buzz there consistently?

“Scheduling and timing of key series does become really important and trying to avoid those big windows [like Olympics and major football tournaments], but I wouldn’t sacrifice having a global game just to keep everyone revved up 24/7.”