MCC recommends extra funding for Test cricket and women’s game, significant reduction in ODIs after 2027

MCC committee proposes extra funding for Test cricket, reduction in ODIs after 2027 World Cup, suggests creating a ringfenced ICC Strategic Fund to strengthen women’s cricket, calls on ICC to ensure equitable schedule of matches for all member countries post 2027. Urges global game to reset, focus on powerful few vs democratic and inclusive approach.

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the custodian of the laws of cricket, has pushed for extra funding to protect Test cricket and the women’s game, and suggested that a significant reduction be made in the number of ODI fixtures after the 2027 World Cup.

In a recent meeting at the Lord’s, the MCC’s 13-member World Cricket Committee (WCC) proposed “removing bilateral ODIs, other than in the one year preceding each World Cup”.

The panel made the suggestion keeping in mind the crowded calendar, which features T20 domestic franchise leagues around the world.

“The committee questioned the role men’s One Day International (ODI) cricket now plays outside of ICC World Cups, and recommended it be significantly reduced following the completion of the 2027 ICC Men’s World Cup,” the MCC said in a statement posted on its website.

“The suggestion is that a scarcity of ODI cricket would increase the quality, achieved by removing bilateral ODIs, other than in the oneyear preceding each World Cup. This would, as a consequence, also create much-needed space in the global cricketing calendar.” The MCC committee proposed extra funding to keep the five-day format significant and alive.

“The committee continues to hear of the growing unaffordability to host men’s Test match cricket in many nations and concluded that the game currently lacks quantifiable data on the costs of hosting a Test match across its member nations,” the release read.

“To address this lack of insight, it proposed a recommendation for the ICC to undertake a Test match financial audit to provide a clearer picture. This audit of operational costs versus commercial return would help the ICC identify nations in need of support in order to sustain a Test match programme.