Icc Ftp |best| May 2026

The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Future Tours Programme (FTP) is ostensibly a benign scheduling framework—a five-year master calendar designed to provide clarity, context, and continuity to the fragmented ecosystem of international cricket. Yet, beneath its spreadsheet of dates and venues lies a powerful, deeply political instrument. Far from being a neutral arbiter of sporting logistics, the FTP is the primary architect of modern cricket’s structural inequities. It systematically privileges commercial viability over competitive balance, entrenches a cartel of wealthy “Big Three” nations (India, England, Australia), and accelerates the existential crisis facing Test cricket while simultaneously starving associate nations of meaningful opportunity. The Genesis of Order from Chaos To understand the FTP’s current dysfunction, one must appreciate its original intent. Before its introduction in 2002, international cricket was a chaotic free-for-all. Bilateral series were negotiated ad hoc, often driven by post-colonial ties or the whims of charismatic board presidents. Smaller nations like Sri Lanka and New Zealand frequently found themselves unable to secure lucrative tours, while wealthier boards cherry-picked opponents. The FTP was a noble attempt to impose rationality: a binding schedule where every Full Member would play every other over a four-year cycle, guaranteeing revenue, exposure, and a semblance of a world championship.

Between 2015 and 2022, the Netherlands, a consistent performer at World Cups, played just three ODI series against Full Members outside of ICC tournaments. The FTP contains no mandatory bilateral requirement for top-tier nations to host associates. Consequently, teams like Ireland and Afghanistan—elevated to Full Membership in 2017—have found themselves trapped in a scheduling limbo. They are Full Members on paper but are treated as associates in practice, forced to play most of their "home" series in neutral venues (Afghanistan in the UAE) or against each other. The FTP does not create a ladder; it reinforces a ceiling. The ICC has attempted to retrofit context onto the FTP, but each attempt has collapsed under the weight of commercial reality. The ODI Super League (2020-2023) was designed to guarantee 13 teams a minimum of 24 ODIs, providing a direct qualification path to the World Cup. It failed because the FTP could not enforce compliance. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket Australia simply scheduled fewer ODIs, prioritizing T20 leagues. The league was scrapped after one cycle. icc ftp

For a brief period, it worked. However, the programme’s fatal flaw was its lack of enforceable consequence and its reliance on the goodwill of autonomous boards. When the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) realized its market dominance—generating over 70% of global cricket revenue—the FTP ceased to be a contract and became a suggestion. The most glaring indictment of the FTP is its open bias toward the so-called "Big Three." In the 2014-2023 cycle, India played 61 Test matches; Bangladesh, a Full Member with a passionate fanbase, played just 41. More tellingly, of the 173 bilateral series scheduled between 2018 and 2023, nearly 40% involved India, England, or Australia. This is not scheduling; it is hoarding. Bilateral series were negotiated ad hoc, often driven

Finally, the ICC must mandate that each Full Member play at least one bilateral series (minimum two ODIs or one Test) per year against an associate nation, with the associate retaining 75% of the broadcast revenue. This is not charity; it is investment in the sport’s long-term health. The ICC Future Tours Programme is a paradox: a document born from a desire for order that has become a tool of oligarchy. It has successfully eliminated the chaos of the 1990s, only to replace it with the sterility of a closed shop. By enshrining the commercial dominance of the Big Three, devaluing Test cricket through scheduling fragmentation, and excluding associates from meaningful competition, the FTP has turned international cricket from a global sport into a luxury brand for three nations. Until the schedule serves sporting merit rather than television rights, the future of the "Future Tours Programme" will remain one of managed decline—a spreadsheet perfectly calibrated to protect the powerful, while the game withers at the edges. devaluing Test cricket through scheduling fragmentation