World Cricketers Association’s report to change cricket: BCCI’s share to cut down to 10%, introduction of four 21-day windows for international cricket

The World Cricketers’ Association (WCA) has released an extensive report titled: ‘History, Embracing Change. A Unified Coherent Global Future’ to fix the current “broken global structure” of cricket. After a six-month review the WCA has come up with key recommendations which include protected windows for international cricket, more equitable revenue distribution model that supports growth and competitive balance, better regulation of player movements in T20 leagues and an ICC that is a global governing body like FIFA and not a members’ club. The Indian Express takes a look at some of the talking points from the recommendations…

With all T20 leagues apart from the IPL not having a window and coinciding with international fixtures forcing players to give up national contract, the WCA wants a simpler, easier to follow global calendar and international competition structures — which should apply from 2028 and 2029 onwards. The WCA wants four 21-day windows in Core International Cricket (CIC) where teams play each other in its division in one series over a two-year cycle. Each series would include a minimum of one match in each format, and each format would have a league table that takes you to an ICC event. When this CIC is on, there won’t be any space for T20 leagues. Teams can also play bilateral series outside this proposed window. The report has tabled how an international calendar for 2028 should resemble: February-March, May-June, September and December and includes the T20 World Cup in October-November and the LA28 Olympics in July.

Economics: BCCI’s share to cut from 38.5 to 10%

The report says the current global cricket’s finances are not optimised, balanced or used effectively to achieve competitive balance and growth, resulting in the sport not reaching its global potential. Moreover, it also says players do not receive a fair earning relative to the wealth they generate. The report finds that 70% of the revenues are generated in just three months of the year and 83% of all revenue is shared between just three countries and the revenue generated by other than the Big Three — India, England and Australia — is less than 4%. From this, payments to players is approximately around 10% of all revenue. To improve this, the WCA wants an optimal calendar to be in place which could result in an additional $246 million revenue annually. It calls for the establishment of minimum and maximum distribution parameters of ICC revenues. As an example, it says “a minimum 2% and maximum 10% for the top 24 countries, and a minimum 10% distribution collectively for countries 25+.”

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It means the BCCI share will cut from 38.5% to 10%. The WCA also wants in place a centralised Global Growth and Development Fund built from a percentage of ICC events revenue, T20 leagues and pooled media rights from CIC.

Leadership:

Although the WCA didn’t want to delve into the topic, it says it was forced to do so because the unanimous feedback was that the game suffered because of lack of leadership. The report says “In short, no one is actually in charge of the sport as a genuine custodian of the global game as a whole.” The report says cricket is run by the most powerful boards, without any representation from leagues, franchises, players or women and more importantly there is no independent leadership. The WCA has called for a Global Game Leadership Committee to be set up which will make its recommendations to the ICC board. This committee will include boards, T20 leagues/franchises, players, and independents.

Regulation: International cricket over T20 outdated

The report says cricket’s global regulations need to reflect the new transnational reality to protect the game and people in it. It says the current frameworks overseen by the ICC doesn’t fit the purpose as it provides primary importance to international cricket over T20 leagues. Calling it an outdated concept, WCA criticises the way the ICC oversees the sanctioning of T20 leagues, the limit on overseas players in a league.

What is the response?

The WCA has already engaged in conversations with the International Cricket Council. The report has already been presented to the ICC Cricket Committee which hasn’t engaged in a great way so far.

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Who was part of the committee?

Paul Marsh Chair (Former ACA CEO and current AFLPA CEO), Sana Mir (Former Pakistan Captain, Broadcaster), Sanjog Gupta (Head of Jio-Star), Tom Harrison (Former ECB CEO and current Six Nations CEO), James Kitching (Former Director of Regulatory, FIFA), Tony Irish (Former CEO SACA and Executive Chairman of WCA), Ex Officio: Tom Moffat (WCA CEO), Stephanie Bond (WCA Head of Legal), Cameron Borgas (WCA Head of Player and Member Operations).

Players who took part in the survey

Pat Cummins, Jos Buttler, Jason Holder, Corey Anderson, Tim Southee, Aiden Markram, Matthew Cross, Alyssa Healy, Heather Knight, Jahanara Alam, Laura Woolvaardt, Sophie Devine, Hayley Mathews, Laura Delany, Craig Ervine, Rashid Khan, Gerhard Erasmus, Priyanaz Chatterji, Meg Lanning.

Quote hangers:

“Cricket is changing fast, but its transition is currently largely unmanaged at global level. There is an urgent need for cricket to reset and modernise its global scheduling, regulations and leadership to keep up with the pace of change and ensure a more balanced future. Every cricket country is part of a global ecosystem, reliant on other countries and their players for their own success.” – WCA CEO Tom Moffat.

“We need to step into our future as a sport, but there are some important parts of our history, and in particular international cricket, that we want to see protected and thriving into the future.” – Pat Cummins, Australia captain.

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“Cricket has given me so much and I want to see it be strong and sustainable in more than just a handful of countries. We’re urging the game’s leadership to act on the information and suggestions contained in this report.” – Rashid Khan, Afghanistan captain.

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