ICC agrees in priniciple to financial changes, Test league

The ICC has confirmed agreement has been reached in principle regarding “a more equitable distribution of revenues” and a shake-up of international cricket schedules.

It was reported on Friday that ICC executives had agreed, at a board meeting in Dubai, on proposals for a two-year Test league and 13-team league for one-day internationals.

That has now been confirmed in an ICC statement, while world cricket’s governing body also announced on Saturday that agreement had been reached in principle regarding constitutional and financial changes – seemingly reducing an imbalance in favour of the ‘Big Three’ nations [India, England and Australia] – and the potential inclusion of new full-member nations.

An ICC media release read: “The broader principles that have been agreed include a revised financial distribution ensuring a more equitable distribution of revenues, [and] a revised constitution to reflect good governance, expanding and clarifying of the roles and objectives of the ICC to provide leadership in international cricket.

“Further constitutional changes proposed include the potential to include additional full members [Ireland and Afghanistan subject to both meeting membership criteria].

“The ICC Board agreed to work collaboratively on the detail of the constitution and model with a view to final sign-off at the April board meeting and submission to the full ICC Council in June.

In terms of the proposed structural changes, the statement added: “Progress was made around the future structures of bilateral international cricket with a preferred model identified by the member chief executives for all three formats of the sport.

“This framework will now be used to build a more detailed model that incorporates scheduling and accommodates existing agreements to present to the ICC Board for full consideration in April and includes:

– A nine-team Test league run over a two-year cycle
– The remaining three Test teams to be guaranteed a consistent and confirmed schedule of Test matches against all other teams
– A 13-team ODI league run over a three-year period leading into qualification for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023
– A regional T20 competition structure to be developed as a pathway to qualification for the ICC World T20

“A scheduling summit will now be held in March before a detailed proposal is put to the ICC Board in April.”