In the eyes of the players, the coaches and the ground staff, these matches are international fixtures. They are, after all, being played between two countries who have played One-Day Internationals, in accordance with the regulations that are in place for such matches, at a One-Day International ground. The fact that Cricinfo and the ICC see these matches as barely worthy of note is very disappointing.
All the same, there is a serious lack of logic about the whole affair.
Except, it doesn't really. Take this Test match for example. This is a three-day fixture with four-ball overs, played on a matting wicket between a privately funded English touring eleven and a South African side of roughly minor-counties standard. It is also recorded as a Test match, although it wasn't at the time. Only five players on the field had played in a Test match before, and few would do so again. Many would go to their graves never knowing that they had.
But playing with a pink ball (or a white ball, or an orange ball, or a beach ball) under lights? That, ladies and gentlemen, is a joke. There is absolutely no way that such a match could possibly be recorded as a Test match. And nor, for the record, could any multi-day game including Ireland, or Afghanistan, or Gibraltar.
The ICC has just such a zero-tolerance policy, apparently, which doesn't help to legitimise the position held by the man pictured to the right.
This logic appears to be missing from the cricketing establishment.