BCCI takes charge in demanding end of World Test Championship and ODI League: Report

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has been in a tussle with the 'Big 3' of cricket (BCCI, CA, and ECB) over the last year as the ICC has tried to work out a new cricket calendar. The ICC had proposed and implemented a schedule which has an ICC event every year to support the smaller boards and their revenues. This has led to some issues being raised by big boards like the Sourav Ganguly-led BCCI, who believe that extra ICC tournaments will negatively impact player workload and bilateral revenues.

ALSO READ | No point discussing IPL 2020 in Sri Lanka right now, top BCCI official

As the Coronavirus threat looms, BCCI and others ask ICC to scrap Test championships and ODI league

According to a report by The Times of India, leading member boards of the ICC (mainly BCCI, ECB, and CA) have written to the apex body, asking for the ongoing World Test championship cycle to be scrapped along with the dropping of the plans for the ICC's ODI League. The World Test Championship was launched by the ICC to give context to bilateral Test cricket and was launched in 2019. The final of the tournament is scheduled to take place at Lord's in 2021. Along with this, the ICC was also planning to launch the ODI League in May 2020 to act as a qualifier for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, which is set to be hosted by India.

ALSO READ | BCCI trumps PCB again as ICC abandons Indo-Pak Women's Championship qualifying round

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, multiple bilateral tours were called off and major tournaments like the BCCI's IPL 2020 have also been suspended. In times like these, the boards are not sure of how the cricket calendar will work out once the pandemic subsides. As reported, the boards do not want to risk affecting their bilateral windows and losing profits from their bilateral media deals due to their obligations to the ICC calendar. The boards also want the ICC to have a look into the Future Tours Program (FTP) and make changes to it.

A leading administrator (presumably from the BCCI) recently told The Times of India that the ICC is showing no leadership whatosever at the moment. He ridiculed the ICC's thought process as nearly all top cricket boards are involved in healthy media rights deals with broadcasters and if the idea is implemented, they could lose out on a large share of revenues, which would have an adverse impact on the ICC's financial state itself.

India are the current leaders of the ICC World Test Championship 2019-20 with 360 points. The Sourav Ganguly-led BCCI has indefinitely suspended IPL 2020 because of the ongoing India lockdown. 

ALSO READ | BCCI gets England, Australia, NZ on its side against hosting future ICC events: Report

ALSO READ | Zaheer Khan highlights striking similarity between Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni's captaincy