World Test Championship biggest of all ICC events: Virat Kohli

Wellington, Feb 19: India skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday put his weight behind the World Test Championship, terming it as the mother of all other ICC events.

"I think World Test Championship as an ICC tournament should be right up there. All the other tournaments for me they start under that. This is probably the biggest of them all as every team wants to make it to the final at the Lord's. We are no different. We are in that zone. We want to make sure that we qualify as soon as we can and be in that frame of mind to hopefully win that (championship)," said Kohli ahead of the India's first Test against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve from Friday.

Kohli said the Test Championship has made the longest format of the game more exciting, adding that India might be sitting on top of the points chart but they need to perform away from home to maintain that.

The Indian team are at the top of the World Test Championship table with 360 points whereas New Zealand are at the sixth spot with 60 points.

"It has made Test cricket more exciting and that's something we have experienced as a side although we haven't had too many games away from home. Couple of games in the West Indies and we haven't had a tour of Australia as a part of Test Championship. This is our first away tour since the start of home season," said Kohli.

"Games will be intense and teams will go for wins rather than settling for draws which is what we need to see in Test cricket. The South Africa versus England series was very exciting. England won the Cape Town Test in the final hour and you will see lot more results like that because there are lot more points in line," he added while referring to the recent South Africa-England Test series.

Going by ICC's proposed 2023-2031 Future Tours Programme (FTP) cycle, a proposed T20 Champions Cup is earmarked for 2024 and 2028 and an ODI Champions Cup in 2025 and 2029, besides the T20 World Cups in 2026 and 2030, and the ODI World Cups in 2027 and 2031.