A proposal that could have reshaped global cricket’s club landscape has been put on ice for the rest of the decade. The ICC has shelved plans to introduce a World Club Championship and additional international multilateral tournaments until at least 2031, after England, Australia and India, cricket’s so-called Big Three, firmly resisted the concept during discussions over the sport’s next long-term scheduling cycle.
The Proposal That Sparked the Pushback
The idea behind the World Club Championship was to create a new global event pitting top domestic franchise teams against one another, part of a broader push by the ICC to grow revenues and diversify its tournament portfolio amid mounting financial pressures across the sport’s governing structures. The concept was discussed as part of informal talks and a cricket operations workshop held in Dubai, where ICC officials explored several new multilateral tournament formats designed to supplement the existing calendar of World Cups and bilateral series.
Why the Big Three Said No
England, Australia and India held firm in arguing that the international calendar simply cannot accommodate additional multilateral fixtures without eliminating existing marquee events, such as the various World Cups and the Champions Trophy, both of which already generate the bulk of the sport’s commercial revenue. One source involved in the discussions described the broader push for new multilateral events as “an ICC landgrab,” while another noted plainly that there was no appetite among the Big Three for additional multilateral tournaments, even while acknowledging that smaller cricketing nations had expressed interest in such an event as a pathway to greater global exposure and revenue sharing.
The Financial Backdrop
The debate unfolds against a backdrop of real financial strain across parts of the global game. India alone generates an estimated 70 percent of global cricket revenue, underpinned by a broadcast rights deal with Disney Star valued at 3.1 billion dollars running from 2024 through 2027, giving the BCCI enormous leverage over any changes to the international calendar. At the same time, the ICC has reportedly commissioned consultants, including McKinsey, to review its tournament structures amid concerns about declining media rights values in several markets, a signal that the governing body is actively searching for new revenue streams even as its most powerful members resist structural change.
What Happens to the Future Tours Programme Instead
With the club championship concept shelved, the next Future Tours Programme, covering the 2027 to 2031 cycle, will largely mirror the current scheduling structure rather than introducing a new multilateral tournament tier. One notable adjustment still under consideration, separate from the club championship idea, is a possible expansion of the World Test Championship to twelve teams, which would bring Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe into the fold, though that proposal remains subject to final approval and has not been confirmed.
A Recurring Governance Tension
This episode is far from the first time the ICC’s ambitions for new global events have collided with the interests of its most powerful members. Boards representing smaller cricketing nations have periodically voiced frustration that new tournament concepts, which could offer them greater exposure, prize money, and development funding, are repeatedly blocked by the Big Three’s reluctance to dilute the commercial primacy of existing World Cups and bilateral tours against each other. The ICC, for its part, has to balance the commercial reality that India, England and Australia generate the overwhelming share of the sport’s revenue against its stated mission of growing the game more broadly across its full membership, a tension that shows no sign of resolving soon.
What’s Next
Cricket’s administrators will now turn their attention to finalizing the details of the 2027-2031 Future Tours Programme without the club championship concept, with the potential twelve-team World Test Championship expansion likely to be among the more closely watched items still on the table. Whether the World Club Championship idea resurfaces in some modified form beyond 2031 will likely depend on how the financial picture for the Big Three nations, and the broader global broadcast market, evolves over the coming scheduling cycle.
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