DUBAI: The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has called for urgent intervention  to protect international cricket, mentioning it is at an important crossroads amidst a crowded global schedule that is getting increasingly swayed by domestic leagues.

The ICC's Future Tours Programme (FTP) is under significant strain as a result of the proliferation of leagues, including the most recent SAT20 and ILT20 offerings. This has resulted in a "alarming disparity" in the number of matches played by a minority of member nations, which is neither "equitable nor sustainable," it added.

Smaller Test-playing teams, such Afghanistan, Ireland, and Zimbabwe, among others, get a tough deal as a result of the incredibly tight FTP, despite the Big Three viz India, Australia, and England, receiving the majority of international assignments.

The MCC stated that the meeting's objectives were to "examine how international cricket can be protected, despite a global cricketing schedule that is increasingly filled with short-form franchise tournaments" and "what global cricket might look like in 10 years' time should it be allowed to evolve organically." The meeting was held in Dubai.

"Franchise tournaments that overlap and compete with the ICC Future Tours Programme (FTP) of bilateral international cricket, which was recently extended through 2027, dominate the men's cricket schedule in 2023. This year's ICC Men's Cricket World Cup in India in October and November causes the only break in the combined schedules "In a statement on Friday, MCC said.
"This pattern occurs yearly, with franchise cricket and international cricket constantly overlapping, and the only space left clear is for the ICC Global events. Only the Indian Premier League commands something resembling a window to avoid international conflicts among the domestic competitions.
A minority of member nations play a disproportionate quantity of international cricket relative to the other member nations, which is plainly not fair nor sustainable, according to the new men's FTP. Although noting that the international game had never been in a "healthier position," the MCC added that the financial bonanza ought to trickle down to each and every ICC member country.

"The committee strongly felt that the opportunity to better balance the international game's economics must be seized now in order to take advantage of this current position of strength and help secure the sustainability of the game for all ICC Member nations and future generations," the report stated.

The ICC Women's FTP through 2025, which was recently revealed in its initial version, "appears quite clean and displays no overlapping of international and domestic leagues, in contrast to the men's version," it claimed.
"But, in order to ensure that the overall workload for the top international female cricketers in the game is manageable, the (MCC's) WCC (World Cricket Committee) advises boards to collaborate in order to achieve the ideal balance between the two, taking lessons from the men's hectic schedule.

"There are worrying signs of potential trends to come," the author writes, "with women already experiencing a greater income gap in some countries between franchise leagues and international cricket (compared to men) and the consequential decisions some are starting to make to step away from international cricket."