The England & Wales Cricket Board brought in uncontested tosses for different reason to the ICC. Here it was less to do with producing more away wins and more about preventing teams producing green seamers tailored for medium pacers who are ineffective at Test level. It was also designed to encourage flatter pitches aligned with Test cricket in the hope of giving spin bowlers more of an opportunity to bowl.
Pitches are now better in April but it has not made any real difference in terms of wins by the away teams. In 2015, the last summer of the traditional toss, 43 championship matches were won by the visiting side. It was 36 last year.
In county cricket there was an increase in the number of overs bowled by spinners in the first year of uncontested tosses but that number declined in 2017, partly due to wet weather.
In Test cricket home advantage is a growing problem. But this is mainly down to the fact teams have little time prepare for Test matches. Players are often switching from Twenty20 or white ball cricket to the Test game with little time to adjust and this is more of a problem for touring teams playing in alien conditions than for those at home.
Away wins have always been rare. England have only beaten Australia in Australia three times since 1955 and India in India twice since 1977.
England have held talks with Cricket Australia about trying to address one sided Ashes series. Australia have not win in England since 2001 and England were hammered 4-0 in the winter.
So far the talks have centred on stronger opposition for warm-up matches. England played three four day games before the first Test in Brisbane but did not face any real pace. They were then blown away by Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh's Hazlewood.
Australian batsmen struggle against the ball moving laterally in English seaming conditions and have tried to prepare for next summer's Ashes tour by playing county cricket this summer. Matt Renshaw is enjoying a strong season for Somerset, while Shaun Marsh is playing for Glamorgan and his brother, Mitchell, was due to spend the summer with Surrey before pulling out with injury.
Virat Kohli turned down playing a Test match against Afghanistan next month to instead prepare for the England series by playing four day cricket for Surrey and his colleague in India's middle order, Cheteshwar Pujara, is playing for Yorkshire.
The discussions around the toss, reported by ESPN Cricinfo, will be part of talks aimed at nailing down the final details of the Test championship. The uncontested toss would apply only to games within the TEst championship which is made up of nine teams each playing six series, three home, three away, over a two year period. The final is expected to be played at Lord's in 2021.
The ICC's cricket committee, chaired by former India leg spinner Anil Kimble, is not a decision making body. Its proposals will go forward to the chief executives committee for approval at the ICC's annual general meeting in Dublin in June although it is rare for the cricket committee's recommendations not to be applied.
