Test cricket can thrive if the countries that received the money take less of the ICC’s revenue share

Everyone was understandably giddy after the all-time great Test match kicked off the Ashes – cricket’s most hyped series.

There were no losers in this epic contest and it’s not just a cliché with England whose high-octane style of play ultimately proved unsuccessful, albeit only justifiably, in trying to claim higher ground afterwards.

Australia’s remarkable win against their old foes was celebrated at home to such an extent that the win took the spotlight away from the dominant football codes that usually get all the attention during the winter months.

It was a reminder of the unrivaled allure of five-day cricket, where its protracted length, which often seems so out of place in modern life, fuels nerve-wracking excitement like no other sport.

Inevitably, traditionalists – almost condescendingly – were quick to gloat over the five-day format endlessly and plead with administrators to keep the format alive when they feared Test the future of cricket.

But what some don’t seem to realize is that Test cricket will almost certainly suit the powerhouses of Australia, England and India – each with billion-dollar domestic media rights deals.

Series involving these countries will flourish as Australia and India play a five-Test series in the 2024-27 season for the first time in decades.

The governments of these countries are still able to retain their top players and fend off – for now – the growing T20 league that lures players with big pay cheques.

Test cricket remains the pinnacle of the sport in Australia and England and should ensure top players want to continue playing the format and inspire the next generation.

But it’s outside of this powerful trio – often derided as “The Big Three” – where things are murky and Test cricket can crater in countries where the format’s popularity is waning.

“The depth of Test cricket is already low at just 12 countries and there are unlikely to be any additions anytime soon,” a senior ICC official told me.

In addition to its strengths, Test cricket struggles as T20 leagues poach star players while cash-strapped boards struggle with the franchise cricket circuit.

Zimbabwe, which along with Ireland and Afghanistan are not in the nine-team World Cup, have a small broadcast deal worth about $1 million a year.

These truncated teams find it difficult to stay competitive, while opportunities to play Test cricket are increasingly scarce as the format is expensive to host.

“Our Test debut against Pakistan in 2018 cost around €1m,” former Cricket Ireland chairman and International Cricket Council board director Ross McCollum told me earlier this year.

“Our annual turnover is around 10-12 million, so a large part of it goes to hosting the Tests. Playing Test cricket is very difficult for us.”

Administrators in these countries have been trying to find more opportunities.

Zimbabwe chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani has formed a task force alongside New Zealand’s Martin Sneddon and England’s Martin Darlow in international cricket, capitalizing on his brief challenge in the ICC presidential election last November.

Mukuhlani, in particular, has been exploring ways to get more matches for long-neglected Zimbabwe, who have not played a Test match against India, Australia or England since 2006.

His efforts look set to bear fruit with Zimbabwe likely to end England’s Test drought for years to come. The Telegraph.

With the International Criminal Court’s coffers deepening from an imminent new $3 billion media rights deal, efforts have been made to improve the quality of lower-tier test nations and top collaborators.

The ICC High Performance Program is set to be revived after running for more than 15 years before being scrapped at the end of the last decade. The top member program included player development paths and specialized management structures that helped professionalize those close to full member level.

Details of the new high-performance program are murky – a task force headed by ICC chief executive Wasim Khan – is looking into the matter, although the revamped version is designed to include some smaller full members as well as elite members.

“The resurgence of the high performance program can really help us,” Cricket Ireland’s director of high performance Richard Holdsworth told me. “It could provide more matches and get lower-ranked full members and top-ranked associate teams playing more against each other.”

Some Associate administrators fear that funding for the program could be derived from the revenue sharing model shared by the Associates from the Media Rights Agreement, which is set to be about 11 percent for the 96 Associate members.

The program will be presented at the ICC meetings in Durban next month, where the main focus will be around the proposed revenue-sharing model, which will see India receive $230 million a year, or 38.5 percent. ESPNcricinfo.

England and Australia get the next highest percentages, albeit significantly lower, at 6.89 and 6.25 respectively.

According to sources, the ICC board is likely to accept the proposed model as is or with minor modifications.

“I suspect the full members want to upset India,” an ICC board leader told me.

One can only wonder how much a significant reduction in the trio’s share or even passing it all together could strengthen the rest of the cricketing world.

More available cash could revive the Test Cricket Fund, which was set up in 2014 after the scandal. The “Big Three” takeover helping seven other full member countries at the time with two half-yearly payments totaling more than one million dollars.

But the fund, which was meant to “encourage and support Test match cricket” outside India, England and Australia, was scrapped as part of a revamp of the funding model in 2016-17.

It is, of course, rather fanciful that the power trio’s share will be cut, and the reality means that inequality will continue in a sport that is still struggling to correct its elitist perception.

Although many members/lesser full members are just happy to be paid much more as the ICC media rights deal is significantly higher than $2 billion for 2015-2023.

But that probably won’t be enough to help them thrive in Test cricket, which is inevitably destined to be played among a handful of prosperous nations that simply haven’t done enough to keep the form up.