The World Cricketers’ Association (WCA) players’ union has unveiled a committee - including sports business heavyweights Tom Harrison and Sanjog Gupta - that will review the sport’s global calendar.
The review has been launched because of “the ongoing failure of the game to come together and establish a global structure,” the WCA has said.
Gupta is the head of sports at the Disney Star heavyweight Indian pay-TV broadcaster, while Harrison spent over seven years between January 2015 and May 2022 as chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board. He is now chief executive of the Six Nations Northern Hemisphere rugby union tournament.
The committee will work with WCA executives and outside consultants to produce recommendations around a structure “that enables international cricket and domestic leagues to coexist in a clear, coherent calendar.”
Over recent years, numerous stakeholders within cricket have complained about the landscape of the sport's global calendar, and in particular the clash - in terms of player availability - between domestic and national team tournaments.
Heath Mills, chair of the WCA, has commented: “We are fortunate that cricket is spoilt for choice and has three core formats across both the international game and domestic leagues.
“However, to date, the game’s leadership has collectively failed to come together to establish a clear and coherent global structure in which they can coexist. The players deserve a say on the future of the game and want us to start putting forward some solutions to known issues.”
It has been reported that the group is aiming to publish recommendations before the end of 2024.
The three main areas that the committee will be assessing are global scheduling; global game economics; and player employment, contracting, and regulation.
The WCA currently represents players from 16 different countries, with the only major cricketing nations not represented being India and Pakistan - neither of those two countries has a player association as yet.
As well as Gupta and Harrison, the working group contains Paul Marsh, Sana Mir, Tony Irish, and James Kitching.
Gupta said: “Cricket, driven by changing consumer habits, emerging media trends, and evolving realities of the game, has witnessed accelerated foundational changes over the last decade. There can’t be a more suitable time for key stakeholders in the game to contribute towards work that could help shape thinking about the game’s future.”
