The changing order of world cricket

When I entered into 2014 Cricket I had great hopes for future of cricket. I had hoped that we will see the game open up and embrace the modern world ways. As I entered the year of hope, the first month was not the one I wanted and is all set to shake the world cricket order in multiple ways. The shake up is at virtually at all the levels.

The restructure by Big 3 has changed the game forever

ICC Restructure
Firstly was the proposed ICC restructure norms which have now been passed in a little bit watered down form. This virtually has surrendered the control of cricket to the so called Big 3- BCCI, ECB and CA. These 3 nations now form the permanent members of the 5 member committee which controls every aspect of the game. Only glimmer of hope is that this 5 member executive council still reports to the ICC Board which consists of all full members.

The restructure also means that the Big 3 now get major funding with BCCI getting the major share. The Associates on their part are all certain to lose funding except for the top 6 which are now supposed to get half the funding the associates get. This means that in the 105 members the top 16 might take most of it and rest of the 90 odd members will have even lesser share when infact they need the most. The only silver lining here would be that in absolute terms we might not see a drop in funding for any member as ICC revenues are set to increase from present 1.5 B$ to 2.5 B$ for a next period of 2015-2023. The bad news is that instead of everybody getting the 66% increase most members will stay at similar levels or at the best a very small increase while the Big 3 who least need the money (As they have many other sources) taking most part of it.

It was hoped that from future there might have been some chance of some top associates being made part of the Future Tours Program-FTP. Under FTP it is envisaged that all the Test nations play rest of the 9 test nations over a period of 8 years so that the lower teams had a chance to play the bigger teams. This system has not worked perfectly but something is better than nothing. Adding some of the top associates might have given them the exposure to play the top teams and some additional funding that could have helped the game at grass root level. However what we got from the proposals is that FTP is scrapped and will be replaced by bilateral agreements. It now means that bigger teams have no compulsion to play the lesser teams and it will be guided only by profits they can bring from a series. This ends up Associates with very limited choices and reduce them to begging from full members

For the next cycles the ICC tournaments will only be played in the Big 3. This is a complete you turn on ICC announcement that they could look into proposals of Associate to host the tournaments like ICC World Twenty20. ICC also announced scrapping the Test Series and decided to re-continue the Champions Trophy. Originally this tournament had been started so that the game could be taken to new countries and in a knock out format it included at it's peak as high as 12 countries and has been hosted in unconventional places like Kenya, Bangladesh. Now this tournament has been cut to 8 nations with just the so called big 8 playing the same. There were voices in the circles that the World Cup could be reduced to just 8 countries as Associates don't add any value!!!

Hopefully Ireland would be playing Test Cricket before 2020

The only visible silver lining was that Test Cricket will be opened up and will be based on meritocracy. This has been the demand of many associate cricket lovers and is a welcome move. However even this step has been much below the expectations. The initial proposal was that BD and Zim will be reduced to playing the Intercontinental Cup and then the Top 2 teams would play with the bottom 2 teams of the 8 Test Teams and from these 4 teams top 2 get test status. This was limiting the test status to just 8 nations. Thankfully this backward step was reversed by the hard work done by BD but as was hoped by Associate lovers that there might be increase in Test Nations to 11 or 12 was not the case. Now under the proposals passed the winner of Intercontinental Cup in 2019 will play the 10th rank Test Nation in an home and away format and the winner will get test status for 4 years. Associates which over the year play themselves with very few quality exposures against top teams are now expected to play the 10th rank Test Team who will have played the longest format against all the top teams. This is a very unfair expectation from the Associates to get Test Status.

ICC World Cup Qualifier
Finally in the associate world there were many shakeups for the next cycle. 3 present ODI nations including the only associate world cup semi finalist Kenya besides Neth and Can have lost their ODI status. They have been replaced by impressive homegrown upcoming nations of HK and PNG besides the expat based but impressive UAE. Many expected Ken and Can to lose their ODI status but Neth was a shocker. They were 3rd in the WCL Championship but now have relegated to Div 2!! This is a major shakeup even we do not consider the shake led by big 3. Another surprise besides Neth was that Nepal whom many including me expected to get an ODI status were relegated all the way to Div 3 taking back their cricket by atleast another 4 years. It seemed after the qualification to World T20, the team went into relaxation mode satisfied by a short term achievement and missing on the long term and bigger prize.

The changing world order with PNG, HK and UAE getting ODI status while Neth, Ken and Can losing it

Future & ICC World Cricket League tournaments
Division Five
In the near future we will have the Div 5 taking place which will have Malaysia, Tanzania, Guernsey, Jersey, Nigeria and Cayman Islands which will be hosted by Malaysia. All the teams are homegrown and most of Associate lovers would like to see the potential nations of Malaysia, Tanzania and Nigeria to qualify for Div 4.

Division Four
Div 4 will consist of Oman, Italy, Singapore, Denmark and top 2 teams from 2014 Div 4 tournament. This will be critical tournament for many nations like Oman and Denmark which have been on a downward slide. The top 2 from this will qualify for Division Three

Hopes dashed for millions of fans with team relegated to Div 3. They will have a tough fight to get back in world order

Division Three
Div 3 will consist of Nepal, Uganda, USA, Bermuda and top 2 from Division Four. This will be a cracker of tournament with Nepal and Uganda would be eager to prove themselves to be better than the rest, while USA and Bermuda would be raring to take revenge of last time and top 2 from Div 4 raring to go ahead. The top 2 teams from here would go into Div 2

Division Two
This would be a stepping stone for chance to get future Test Status. The Top 2 teams from this tournament would most likely make the lineup for 8 teams Intercontinental Tournament. This tournament will have the 3 teams which lost ODI status-Ken, Can & Neth besides former ODI nation Nam and top 2 from Div 3.

2015-18 Intercontinental Cup
This would be the first Intercontinental Cup with a purpose that it always lacked. A purpose where the winner will get the Test Nations. The tournament will have the 6 ODI status nations - Ire, Afg, UAE, Scot, PNG and HK besides the top 2 teams from Div 2. Most likely like last time a parallel WCL championship will also run along which might provide a pathway to 2018 ICC World Cup Qualifier in Bangladesh and not the world cup as 2019 World Cup is just 10 nation

There are many things which will become clear as the time progresses. Hopefully ICC does not get into a mode of cutting down tournament for associates which would be death blow to game in future. Also ICC needs to work on getting more members unlike the present case where they have made the criteria for Affiliate membership much more stricter. Then the ultimate big question Cricket into Olympics needs to addressed and that too with ICC working in favor of taking game into the Olympic fold. This will give a much needed step to take game into new markets and will force ICC to become much more open. But turkeys don't vote for Christmas and I am losing hope with the administrators. I hope there will be some light for me at the end of the tunnel

A case of Parachuted funding for relegated Associates

On 14th April 2011, Uganda played a match against PNG and lost it by 1 run. What was critical about this match was that a win or tie would have made Uganda stay in Division 2 but this loss relegated them to Division 3 of World Cricket League. But this was not the critical part. The critical aspect was due to relegation into Div 3 Uganda no longer was part of ICC High Performance Program. Due to this there was a major cut in the funding for Uganda by the ICC. This first major effect was that the board was no longer able to give central contracts and the players lost out

A loss of ODI status can mean the players losing their central contracts for Kenya

Uganda are not the only case. Seeing the present level of performance Canada, Kenya might be on the verge of losing their ODI status and in return a major cut in funding. The cut is funding can be as high as 80% giving a sudden shock to the boards

Funding related to performance is not a unique feature in cricket. Infact most of the games also follow the performance related funding. In soccer the teams in premier division get more funding than those is the second division. Performance related funding pushes the team to reach higher performance level and for the teams at a higher level it pushes them to stay there and not relegate not to lose funding. This helps the game to increase the level of performance

However in most of the sports there is always a parachuted funding for teams which are relegated to lower levels. Parachuted funding means that there would not be drastic and sudden cuts, rather the cuts would be gradual. This is important so that it does not have a shock effect, rather allows team to settle down in a gradual manner. This in anyway does not mean the team will be sitting comfortably but there is a loss of funding.

So a Parachuted Funding would mean that Kenya if they lose ODI status this time the funding will not drop from 500,000$ to 100,000$ in straight one year, rather it might go to 350,000$ in first year, 215,000$ in Second year and then to 100,000$. This will mean that all the hard work put at ground level will not be washed away in 1 year and the board might strive for alternate resources but never allowing the team and board to be in comfort zone.

In a rapidly changing times for ICC, hopefully they will notice this very important requirement and act on it and not bring a case where a loss of 1 run means whole team losing their jobs.

Time to bring back ICC Knockout

In 1998 ICC came out with a brilliant tournament. It was to be hosted in a upcoming cricket country, give chance to few ODI nations to play in that and in a high octane knock out format, where is you miss the opposition hits. The tournament got a brilliant response from the first tournament in Bangladesh. The second tournament was even more exciting and the Indians defeating the favorites Australia and South Africa lost to Kiwis in the finals. However from 2002 ICC went for a change of format and removed the knock out format with a league system though small in size greatly increasing the number of matches.

Over time the pressure of time forced the tournament to be cut to just 8 teams making it a pointless tournament killing the purpose it was created for. This year in a complete change of tournament structuring, ICC Champions Trophy has been struck off now replacing it with the required ICC Test Championship. They also reduced the World T20 from 2 to 1 in 4 years. This now leads ICC to 3 tournaments in 4 years leaving 1 slot free.

How the proposed ICC format will look using the present ODI rankings. A short and interesting tournament

Cricket really needs to get aggressive and spread it to new markets. ICC Knockout is one of the exact tournament which is one size suits all though in small doses. Being a short tournament it can be easily fit in the FTP, it can be easily hosted in upcoming countries and the upcoming countries can get a chance to compete against Test Teams outside the World Cup and finally the format will keep everybody interested in the tournament. Even if the major teams loses early the tournament is short enough for ICC not to worry it will be dragged on.

Since 2007 ICC based on performance gives ODI status to 6 Associate teams. ICC Knockout gives us a good chance to make it a 16 team tournament with 10 Test Nations and 6 ODI Status Nations. To help spread the game ICC should host it in a upcoming country. It will help to take the game to non traditional markets.

The ICC is also going for reduction of World Cup from 2019 reducing it 10 nations. This leaves with a real possibility of Associate member left high and dry from ODI form of game and reduced to just playing T20 against full members. This is very counterproductive and hence becomes even more important for ICC to reintroduce the tournament.

I hope some good sense prevails in the ICC and we see it reintroduced it from 2018.

A better way of Funding Required for ICC?

Funding surely is a tricky business for ICC members. Baring a handful of about 6 out of 106 members, the rest 100 are solely dependent on ICC funding.

The situation becomes even more critical when we know that 70% of Funding is due to 1 country and next 20% is due to 2 countries. Hence how much funding is dependent on what type of a member a country is (Test, Associate or Affiliate), additionally for Associates what is your performance is (ODI Status (6 Teams), High Performance Program (4 Teams) and Rest). Besides this finally which region a member belongs to also means different funding for members. There are 5 regions of ICC- Asia, Africa, Americas, Europe and East Asia Pacific. Belonging to Asia means most funding and most tournaments as Asia CC get's around half of ICC Development fund and other half is distributed amongst the other 4 Regions.

This means a Test Nation (10 Teams) get roughly 7.5 M$ / Year, while the 6 ODI nations get 0.65M$, 4 HPP members get 0.4 M$, 27 balance Associates get .16 M$ and the 59 Affiliate get miserly 0.015 M$ from ICC. The region funding varies and it mostly covers cost of tournaments.

So this means a country such big as Indonesia with a population of over 220M  get's roughly 30,000$ has to develop it's cricket, take the team for ICC tournaments. It also means that a country of Bermuda with a population with 60,000 and Nepal with a population of 40M get the same funding of 0.1 M$ from ICC.

Also when a Associate member looses the performance based funding it can have major consequences. Uganda when lost it's HPP membership it meant Uganda Cricket Association had to end central contracts with whole teams as it could no longer afford it. And this happened when Uganda lost a match to PNG by just 1 run and that run cost them roughly 240,000$ and entire team's salary

If we try to understand why ICC formed such funding, it was because it was only in last 15 years they expanded and tripled their membership. At that time they were for a standardized approach for membership as it did not have expertize to manage the critical aspect.

On top of that as Cricket is not an Olympics sport, this means that Government's are not interesting in funding the sport.

ICC has recently made some changes. From 2013 Associate members instead of the fixed 0.16 M$ will start getting 0.1 M$ fixed and rest based on a scorecard. The ICC also has formed a TAPP funding where based on need as presented by various members ICC funding. Ireland, Scotland & Netherlands have got 1.5 M$ for 3 years based on this funding.

However now the time has come for a complete restructuring of Funding. The funding should be based on certain criteria so that the development can be carried out in a much more sustainable way. The ICC needs to take care on few points

1. Performance of Board
ICC needs to define performance parameters for all it's members like School & Junior Cricket Participation, Transparency in Operations and money, Government Support, Domestic Cricket Tournaments and Scorecard each of the boards. The more the Score more the ICC level of funding. This will means boards taking much more long term sustainable steps

2. Population and Area of Countries
Population and Area of countries have a deep impact of how funding can be utilized. USA and Bermuda may be both Associate members and presently should never get same funding (As is the case today). USA is a huge country with 315 M population and 9 M Sq Km area while Bermuda is just 0.06 M Population. So definitely these factors need to be considered while funding is given.

3. Performance of Team
The better the performance of team, the more exposure ICC needs to get for the team. Hence a Ireland should be given a chance to play more Test teams or their A teams and also go for a sustainable domestic first class tournaments.
The better teams need that extra thrust to make them more self sustaining for future and in long term releases more money for the next level of upcoming teams

4. Parachuted Funding
The case of Uganda where when they lost HPP membership the whole team was out of central contracts. When a team in it's bad days, the funding should go out in a Parachuted ways. Uganda which lost funding from 0.4 to 0.16 M$ in 1 year instead should have gone down in 3 years. That way the board can plan for a comeback. Now it become a double blow, the membership and also lot the funding.

5. Full Members to be brought in the funding plan
Presently all the funding rules are applicable only for Associate and Affiliate members. ICC should make the whole structure more open, where if Ireland perform well they should be able to play Test Matches and Zimbabwe may lose out. Also the difference of 7.5 M$ to 0.6 M$ should be removed.
 Yes ICC will need to support the full members for playing Test matches but this should not mean a 12.5 times difference of funding. The ICC should be transparent in why and how part of funding for each member

Most of these things were covered by Woolf's report. ICC instead of even discussing it has pushed it aside. If ICC has to move with times it will need to come out of the colonial elite mindset and in sync with modern methods. Hoping for the best.