WCA Recommends But Will Cricket Listen
Author: Tom Penn
Updated At:
It has long been accepted as fact that the three largest cricket boards - Cricket Australia, the BCCI and the ECB take the lion's share of ICC revenue - but now the Global Game Structure Report from the World Cricketer's Association, which came out last week, has highlighted this and many other issues in world cricket as they seek to find a more equitable and sustainable future for the sport.
While celebrating the success of franchise leagues such as the international cricket to prevent the current tug-of-war between leagues and international boards.
Read on as we look at the status-quo and see if anything will change in the future!
Global Cricket Revenue
- Only 2% of global cricket revenue is shared between the countries ranked 13-108 while Australia, India and England share 83% of the pie!
- Just 10.5% of global cricket revenue is shared by the players who have generated it via their performances on the pitch
Scheduling
With every cricket board in the world trying to put on their version of the IPL, the cricket calendar has become jam-packed and shows no signs of slowing down.
The WCA would like to see an easier to follow global calendar which includes scheduling windows for 'core international cricket'. Within this, they would also like to see a greater emphasis of attention and marketing on international cricket which could be facilitated via promotion and relegaion across all three international formats.
This would not spell the end of franchise tournaments and would not take away from some of the top-level entertainment as seen in the opening week of this year's IPL, but would instead allow leagues to co-exist with the international game.
Leadership
The WCA has proposed implementing an interim 'Global Game Leadership Committee' to provide recommendations to the ICC.
Whether the ICC will take kindly to suggestions of modernisation which will promote a shared ownership model remains to be seen, but with the likes of Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan, Australia skipper Pat Cummins and former England Women's captain Heather Knight all backing the report, new leadership could well emerge.
Regulations
This does not refer to the LBW rule or how many times Joel Wilson has seen his decisions overturned by DRS, but rather to the regulations of how the game is governed and protected.
Not much has changed from a global regulations perspective over the last 50 years yet the game has developed in unrecognisable ways and now needs to reflect this.
Economics
As we mentioned early in this article, significant ICC revenue does not find its way around the globe and as a result, should we be in any way surprised that Australia, England and India have won 11 of the last 13 major ICC events?
The WCA has proposed a Global Growth and Development Fund which would fund 'Core International Cricket' and other initiatives around the world.
Nobody is trying to crush the cricketing and economic powerhouses of the top three, but merely looking to see the wealth spread more evenly to result in tighter contests across all formats in major competitions.
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