Icc Ftp [repack] -

Similarly, the WTC’s points system is so convoluted (equal points for a two-Test series as a five-Test series) that it distorts strategy. Teams deliberately schedule short series against lower-ranked opponents to maximize points per match. The FTP thus incentivizes cowardice over ambition. Why play a five-Test series in India when you can play two and preserve your ranking? To salvage the FTP, the ICC must abandon its role as a passive scheduler and embrace that of an active regulator. Three reforms are necessary. First, the programme must become a binding contract, not a guideline. Any board that cancels a bilateral series without extraordinary cause should face severe financial penalties and the loss of voting rights.

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. icc ftp

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. Similarly, the WTC’s points system is so convoluted