DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC), cricket’s governing body released on Wednesday a revamped Future Tours Programme (FTP) for the period of 2018-23.
The stated aim of the new FTP is to bring more context to bilateral cricket series across all three formats of the men’s game.
As expected, the World Test Championship (WTC) has been created along with a 13-team men’s ODI league.
In the WTC, Test cricket’s 9 top-ranked sides will participate in its inaugural edition, which will run from 15 July 2019 to 30 April 2021. Interestingly, the teams have mutually agreed upon the 6 home and away series they wish to incorporate in it during the 2-year cycle. The two top-ranked sides will then progress to the final in June 2021, which is likely to be held at Lord’s, to decide the World Test champions.
The ODI league, which will be held from 1 May 2020 to 31 March 2022, will serve as a qualifier for the 12 Test playing nations and the Netherlands at the next World Cup in 2023 which is expected to take place in India. All the teams have selected opponents mutually in this case as well to play 8 series over a 2-year cycle on a home and away basis. The top 7 teams will qualify directly for the competition, while the rest will have to play a special Qualifying Tournament.
The ICC, along with its members have kept in mind the home seasons of teams, series which need to be played due to prior commercial commitments, scheduling bilateral tournaments besides those included in the WTC and the ODI league as well as those time periods when cricket boards need to decide on permitting players to participate in domestic T20 leagues such as the IPL and Big Bash.
Iconic series such as The Ashes will continue to be played with the same amount of gap and in the same time period, keeping in mind the history of the competition.
However, an India-Pakistan bilateral series continues to be out of question due to the political tensions between the two nations.
ICC chief executive David Richardson commented on the release of the FTP. “The agreement of this FTP means we have clarity, certainty and most importantly context around bilateral cricket over the next five years. The World Test Championship will get underway next year with the ODI league kicking off in 2020 as part of the qualification towards the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.
“Bringing context to bilateral cricket is not a new challenge, but with the release of this FTP, our Members have found a genuine solution that gives fans around the world the chance to engage regularly with international cricket that has meaning and the possibility of a global title at the end.”
The structure of the men’s FTP (2018-23) includes:
ICC Cricket World Cup – 2019 and 2023
ICC World T20 – 2020 and 2021
World Test Championship
Cycle 1 – 2019-2021 (final 2021)
Cycle 2 – 2021-2023 (final 2023)
All bilateral Tests, ODIs and T20Is outside of the above competitions
Full details on the 2018-2023 FTP are available here…
