Cricket's World Test championship will not begin until 2017, International Cricket Council [ Images ] (ICC [ Images ]) chief executive Haroon Lorgat [ Images ] announced, in Dubai [ Images ], on Monday.

"I am afraid that is no longer going to happen in 2013," he said.

"At the last (ICC) board meeting we decided the first opportunity to play the Test championship is 2017. I am disappointed it is not going to take place sooner but it is a reality of the commitments we have already got through to 2015.

"We attempted to switch the (scheduled One-day) Champions Trophy [ Images ] to become a Test championship but that is not going to be possible."

Those commitments include a contract with broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports through to the end of the One-day World Cup in 2015, as well as contracts with sponsors. When those contracts were agreed, they were based on a One-day cricket event taking place in 2013. That will now be the Champions Trophy.

The announcement is a blow to test cricket's brand, which is already struggling to draw crowds and achieve a place within many countries' schedules in the face of the new popularity of Twenty20 [ Images ] cricket.

Broadcasters and sponsors see more potential for recouping the money spent on their ICC contracts through a global limited-overs tournament rather than a series of five-day matches with the game's biggest revenue-generator, India [ Images ], not guaranteed to qualify for what was to be a four-team Test tournament.

"We attempted to form the World Test championship which I think would have been a very good context in ensuring the primacy of Test cricket but again we will have to wait for 2017 to see that as a reality," added Mr Lorgat.

The World Test rankings do exist with England [ Images ] top after deposing India with a 4-0 series triumph earlier this year.

Holding a "World Cup" of test cricket has never been possible because the length of five-day games have made it difficult to organise.