New Delhi: The World Cricketers’ Association recently released a report named “History, Embracing Change: A Unified Coherent Global Future” in order to fix the current “broken global structure” of cricket. The WCA, after a six-month review, has come up with major recommendations which include an equal revenue distribution model, protected windows for international cricket, player movement in T20 leagues and something about the ICC as well.
Let’s take a look at what the WCA report has outlined based on the survey it conducted including several current famed players. The recommendations indeed have the calibre to change cricket from its core.
Introducing four 21-day windows
Apart from the Indian Premier League (IPL), all other T20 leagues don’t have a separate window and thus coincide with international fixtures, which forces players to give up on the national contract. To eliminate this, the WCA proposes a simplified global calendar and structure for the T20 leagues beginning from 2028 and 2029.
This would include four 21-day Core International Cricket (CIC) windows, with each series featuring a minimum of one match in each format. This would swell space for the T20 leagues as well and also allow bilateral series outside the proposed window.
Revenue distribution
The WCA also raised concerns on cricket’s finances saying they aren’t optimised and balanced so as to achieve competitive growth, which acts as a hurdle in the sport reaching its global potential. The report included players as well, who according to it, do not receive fair earnings relative to the wealth they generate. The report suggests that 70% of revenues are generated in just three months, with 83% shared between only three countries.
Players only receive 10% of all the revenue due to which WCA has called for an optimal calendar that could generate $246 million annually in global cricket revenue. It also calls for minimum and maximum distribution parameters of ICC revenues, which means that the BCCI’s share could come down from 38.5% to 10%.
Who leads cricket?
Although the WCA didn’t want to engage in this debate, the report says they were forced to do so because of the feedback they got about a lack of leadership. To answer this, the report said no one is in charge of the game and that cricket is run by the most powerful boards, without any representation from leagues, players, or franchises. Therefore, the WCA calls for a Global Game Leadership Committee to be set up which will make recommendations to the ICC board.
In the report, the WCA was critical of the ICC saying that the current framework that the ICC oversees doesn’t fit the purpose, only providing primary importance to international cricket over T20 leagues. The report wasn’t accepting of the fact that the ICC oversees the sanctioning of T20 leagues.
The likes of Pat Cummins, Jos Buttler, Jason Holder, Corey Anderson, Tim Southee, Alyssa Healy, Heather Knight, Jahanara Alam, Laura Woolvaardt, and many more players took part in the survey.
Players like Pat Cummins, Jos Buttler, Rashid Khan, Heather Knight, etc. took part in the WCA survey which was aimed at analysing several aspects of the game in order to make it effective for all. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
