Reports | Big Three criticizes ICC’s T20 Champions Cup for 2023-2031 cycle

Reports | Big Three criticizes ICC’s T20 Champions Cup for 2023-2031 cycle

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ICC’s proposal to host a 48-match long T20 Champions Cup for the 2023 to 2031 broadcast rights cycle has been met with strong criticism from the richest member boards. The ICC are pushing for at least one ICC event in each year of the cycle to help revenue flow to the game's smaller countries.

The full suite of proposed events for the next broadcast rights cycle (2023-2031), as reported by ESPNcricinfo, includes a T20 Champions Cup in 2024 and 2028, an ODI Champions Cup in 2025 and 2029, alongside the T20 World Cups in 2026 and 2030, and the ODI World Cups in 2027 and 2031. While the 50-over Champions Cup, as proposed, will be an event similar to the Champions Trophy with just six teams participating, the T20 Champions Cup is effectively another World Cup in size, with 48 matches included in its schedule. 

While the ICC — and its chief executive Manu Sawhney — are arguing that these events are needed for the international organization to provide consistent cash flow to the game's smaller countries, the so-called Big Three disagree. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia (CA), and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are pushing to maintain their own broad windows for bilateral cricket, which is a bigger money raiser for them.

"We've got a responsibility as one of the leading countries to make the ICC strong and the countries who are part of the ICC. But we've also got to balance that with our own requirements around bilateral cricket. One of the challenges we have is Australia relies more on bilateral cricket than the ICC, where for a lot of countries it is the other way round. So just trying to find the balance," CA chairman Earl Eddings had said last year.

Member countries have been given until March 15, i.e. ahead of the next quarterly round of ICC meetings, to submit expressions of interest to bid for global for the events proposed for the 2023-2031 cycle. Although on a smaller scale, a Champions Cup for both T20 and 50-over matches has also been included in the women's program, with six teams competing in 16 matches for both events. 

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