You are perhaps right about the fact that there aren't many better alternatives, people have talked about two tiers (even 3 tiers) but I'm a little skeptical of some of those ideas for some reasons...in anycase I think you should let the ICC know (of your suggestions I mean, go to their website, their must be some way you could let them know of your thoughts)...they're having this meeting in Delhi sometime from now, where they're suppose to discuss Zimbabwe's test status amongst other things, you might never know, Ehsan Mani might like your idea and then you could be famous