South Africa's cricket chief Gerald Majola has welcomed with caution the idea of a new world Test championship.

Earlier this week, a British newspaper reported the International Cricket Council will meet with the MCC in November to examine proposals on safeguarding the future of the five-day form of the game, amid fears it is fast losing its appeal in the face of the 50-over and in particular the 20-over formats.

The chairman of the MCC's world cricket committee, Tony Lewis, told the 'Daily Telegraph': "Test match cricket must fight" to ensure its global survival, adding it is something that "can't be ignored".

However, Majola is not too concerned with the situation, especially with the top Test nations competing against each other in series such as the recent home-away series between Australia and South Africa and the ongoing Ashes.

He said: "The Proteas have recently completed a home-and-away Test series against Australia and which were attended by full houses.

"Cricket South Africa believes that this kind of positive Test cricket will always draw the crowds, and will remain the yardstick as far as matches and the players are truly measured."

But the CSA chief executive officer is worried about the other end of the scale.

He continued: "No matter how attractive this strength-versus-strength format may be, cricket must take into consideration the aspirations of those nations who cannot participate in so-called 'icon tours' because they are denied these riches which will surely ensure that the well-off incumbents will remain the recipients.

"The ICC's Future Tours Programme has tended to favour these few 'icon' countries, and this has helped them to continue their dominance at the expense of developing cricket countries."

The MCC are reported to favour an eight-nation competition in which teams play a best-of-three-match series, with the top-ranked sides progressing to the semi-finals and a final to be staged at Lord's.

But Majola believes the smaller nations simply cannot be ignored and their interest would have to be strongly considered in any new format.

He added: "Any future Test championship should take this into account, otherwise the historically best form of the game will remain restricted to the previously chosen few.

"Failure to take notice of this might well be a major negative against the spread of Test cricket and could force the aspiring cricket nations to pursue the limited-overs route only.

"This might ultimately spell the demise of Test cricket."