MCC panel wants to have a minimum of three Tests per series

The MCC World Cricket Committee (WCC) has backed suggestions coming from various stakeholders in the cricket world – Cricket Australia, West Indian legend Clive Lloyd, Indian captain Rohit Sharma (who in-principle has backed the idea) among others – to have a minimum of three Tests per series, going forward.

In a WCC meet Chaired by former Sri Lankan captain Kumara Sangakkara held in Cape Town last week, it was recommended to the ICC to do away with one-off Test matches and two-Test series from the next Future Tours Programme (FTP) 2028 onwards.

Alarm bells were raised about the future health of Test cricket once it became known that Test powerhouse South Africa would be sending a squad of its non-contracted players – they are committed to playing Cricket South Africa-run SA20 league - to New Zealand in a two-Test series that comes under the World Test Championship cycle. The below-strength South African team was beaten comfortably by New Zealand in the first Test of the ongoing series.

While suggestions to have more Test cricket universally have been made in the past, finding funds for the same, outside the more established cricket boards like India, England and Australia remains a problem.

The WCC makes an important suggestion to make hosting Test cricket financially viable for cricket boards. "The WCC has long been aware of the game's global economics being heavily imbalanced and detrimental to touring teams who bear the cost of travel, whilst all revenue is retained by the host body based upon a historical expectation of 'quid pro quo' touring arrangements.

"With evidence emerging of this now creating inequalities the committee calls for this model to be reconsidered, with analysis to be conducted on the impact of home bodies absorbing these touring team costs as a way of redistributing income and adding greater context to all future bilateral cricket. This should form part of a broader audit of the current costs of the international game called for following the previous WCC meeting in July 2023," the statement said.

The WCC which also called out to the ICC to create new markets for the game beyond its core market – India. "The game owes a debt of gratitude to India, with its insatiable thirst for cricket driving the wealth in the global game. However, this reliance upon India belies the fact that the game needs to identify new markets to ensure its global growth, at a time when media rights beyond the current cycle are by no means guaranteed," WCC said.

"With this uncertainty identified and on the back of the momentum built through this year's ICC Men's T20 World Cup in the USA and Caribbean and the build up to the 2028 Olympics in the USA, the acceleration of the USA as a growth market for cricket would seem a natural consideration."

The MCC which also includes former cricketers, umpires and administrators Suzie Bates, Clare Connor, Kumar Dharmasena, Sourav Ganguly, Jhulan Goswami, Heather Knight, Justin Langer, Eoin Morgan, Ramiz Raja, Ricky Skerritt and Graeme Smith also called upon ICC member nations to 'ring-fence a significant amount from their enhanced four-year ICC distributions to support the growth of women's cricket'.