Cricket Australia: BCCI finds ally in opposing more ICC tournaments

Cricket Australia CEO Kevin Roberts told a leading online media portal on Wednesday that an extra international 50-over tournament in the next ICC Future Tours Programme (FTP) from 2023 to 2031 cannot be allowed to take on a period or a duration that will pressurize an already packed international schedule.

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Roberts backs BCCI & ECB

Following the recently concluded ICC meetings in Dubai, where it was announced that a working group of member nations had agreed to the ICC CEO Manu Sawhney's idea of selling eight ICC men's events in eight years as part of the next broadcast rights package, Roberts seconded the concerns of the BCCI as well as the ECB about the inclusion of more global events into an already crammed cricket calendar.

It is speculated that there are four major boards which see bilateral series' broadcast rights as their main source of income as well as the domestic T20 leagues, while other boards rely on the revenue of ICC's sale of the global events' package for eight years. Roberts also expressed his concerns for the health of Test cricket if an additional global event occupies the slot.

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Roberts added that CA is keen to work with other member nations and the ICC about determining what parts of the annual calendar will ICC events occupy in the future across a specific number of days so that bilateral international series between them and other nations was embraced and respected in the process. The idea is to strike a healthy balance of ICC Cricket World Cups along with international cricket as well as the space for popular domestic leagues like the Big Bash League and the Indian Premier League to prosper in the future.

The CA CEO believes that it is a balancing act and they are supportive of the principle, knowing that they have got a lot of work ahead of them on the calendar from 2023 to 2031.

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