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11 hours ago
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The International Cricket Council is exploring a radical overhaul of the global calendar with discussions surrounding multilateral series, the creation of continental championships, a World Club Championship for T20 franchises, fixed windows for each format and possible changes to the length of one-day internationals.
Talks between the 12 full members will take place at the ICC’s annual general meeting in Edinburgh on Wednesday as part of a strategic review being managed by the consulting firm McKinsey.
Sources say that while the process is at an early stage, the ICC is encouraging discussion of radical ideas with the aim of securing the long-term future of all three formats of international cricket – Test matches, T20s and ODIs – in the face of the threat posed by franchise leagues.
The ICC’s future tours programme is fixed until next year, and beyond that events such as World Cups, the World Test Championship (WC) and series involving England, India and Australia are scheduled until 2031, so any changes would have to wait until after then.
Sources say that after spending recent years focusing on the format of the WTC, the ICC now favours a more holistic, long-term approach, to build a framework to allow three international formats to thrive.
In addition to fixed windows, with ODIs being played only in the 18 months leading up to a World Cup, for example, more radical ideas are being discussed including reducing the length of ODIs. The ICC is also exploring adding more events to its portfolio, with bilateral series not involving two of England, India and Australia having little commercial value.
While there are no plans to add more global tournaments to the current four-year cycle that includes the 50-over World Cup,the Champions Trophy and two T20 World Cups in the men’s and women’s game, the ICC could schedule more multilateral events.
The addition of continental championships, such as the biennial Asia Cup contested by India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nepal, is one idea that has been floated, while the ICC’s potential role in running a World Club Championship is also being considered.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa operated a T20 Champions League involving franchise teams between 2009 and 2014, but it folded after six seasons due to limited commercial appeal.
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Any move by the ICC to take charge of running bilateral or multilateral series would be opposed by England, India and Australia, as they want to control their own revenues, but fixed international windows for each format would be more popular. They would also be welcome by the players, with the World Cricketers’ Association calling for them in a report published last year.
The ICC’s AGM will also discuss a proposed expansion of the WTC to 12 teams for the 2027 to 2029 edition, with Ireland, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan in line to be admitted, which would only be possible if one-off Tests are deemed eligible for WTC points. A final decision on the WTC format is expected in November.
The ICC was approached for comment.
