Big three’s hostile takeover nears completion

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

The big three’s hostile takeover of international cricket moved a step closer to completion at the International Cricket Council (ICC) board meeting that ended in Dubai yesterday.

In February, India, England and Australia demanded and were granted in principle the lion’s share of the power and money in the world game by the ICC’s small seven, less equal full members.

The board “authorised the drawing up of the necessary constitutional amendments which will be placed before the full council at the ICC annual conference to be held in Melbourne at the end of June”, an ICC release said yesterday.

Among the sops thrown to the small seven - which include SA - in the new deal is a binding future tours programme (FTP), which will run until 2023. Currently, the FTP is not enforceable, as South Africans discovered last season when India shortened their tour from 12 to five matches.

“The FTP is a very important piece of work as it gives members long-term certainty in relation to both their playing schedule and financial planning,” the release quoted ICC chief executive David Richardson as saying.

“Significant progress has been made but there is still work to be done to develop a balanced calendar of tours and finalise these agreements.”Another significant decision announced yesterday will give countries who have stood with their noses pressed to the shop window of test cricket an opportunity to walk through the door. But first they will have to get past security.

The ICC approved the Test Challenge (TC), which will be contested by the lowest-ranked test team and the winners of the Intercontinental Cup (IC) every four years from 2018.

The ICC’s associate or second-tier members play in the IC, a first-class competition that has been staged six times from 2004 to 2013. Eight teams played in the most recent version of the tournament.

Ireland, who have won the event four times, are the current champions. Scotland and Afghanistan have also won the IC.

In 2018, the test team ranked 10th on December 31, 2017 will play against the IC champions in two away and two home matches of five days each in the inaugural TC.

The next IC will be played from 2015 to 2017, and then from 2019 to 2021. The second TC is scheduled for 2022.

“The (TC) now opens the door for associate members to play test cricket and in doing so gives even greater context to the (IC) which will now be a pathway to test cricket,” Richardson was quoted as saying.

But the fine print has yet to be written, much less read. How many of the four matches the associate team will have to win or draw in the TC to gain promotion to the test ranks has yet to be decided, and even the last-placed test team will have FTP commitments and are therefore unlikely to be relegated.

* SA’s one-off test against Zimbabwe in Harare will start on August 5, Zimbabwe Cricket said yesterday.

The South Africans will then travel to Bulawayo to play the home side in one-day internationals on August 17, 19 and 21.

They will return to the capital for an ODI triangular that will include Australia, who will play the first match against the hosts on August 25.

The teams will play each other twice before the final on September 6.