MCC Recommends Extra Funding For Test Cricket And Women's Game, Significant Reduction In ODIs After 2027

This comes after a 13-member panel highlighted the crowded calendar, which also includes T20 franchise competition?around the world.

"The committee questioned the role men's One Day International (ODI) cricket now plays outside of ICC World Cups, and recommended it be significantly reduced following the completion of the 2027 ICC Men's World Cup," the MCC said in a statement posted on its website.?

"The suggestion is that a scarcity of ODI cricket would increase the quality, achieved by removing bilateral ODIs, other than in the one-year preceding each World Cup. This would, as a consequence, also create much-needed space in the global cricketing calendar."

In the hopes to keep the longest format alive, the MCC also proposed extra funding towards Tests.

"The committee continues to hear of the growing unaffordability to host men's Test match cricket in many nations and concluded that the game currently lacks quantifiable data on the costs of hosting a Test match across its member nations," the release read.?

"To address this lack of insight, it proposed a recommendation for the ICC to undertake a Test match financial audit to provide a clearer picture. This audit of operational costs versus commercial return would help the ICC identify nations in need of support in order to sustain a Test match programme.?

"This need could be subsequently addressed via a separate Test fund, established to protect the sanctity of Test match cricket."

The club also asked ICC to provide funding towards women's games to strengthen it globally.

The committee, which is headed by Mike Gatting, Sourav Ganguly and Jhulan Goswami asked ICC to create a balanced calendar for men's cricket after 2027.

"The goal must be to secure a balanced, meaningful, and commercially viable FTP for all, which prioritises bilateral cricket, finds suitable space for franchise cricket yet, in particular, supports the full potential of the ICC World Test Championship to be recognised," the Club said.

Gatting, who is serving his final days in the chair, said that it was time for cricket to hit the reset button.

?"It's time for the global game to reset. Too often, member nations are finding themselves living hand to mouth with their cricketing operations, versus having a long-term, viable strategy in place that future-proofs the game in their country, both financially and in terms of participation," he concluded.