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Australia and England must be prepared to play Ashes series of fewer than five Tests and every three years instead of every two.
This is the view of FICA (Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations) executive chairman Heath Mills, who is lobbying the game’s global powers for a streamlined and fair future tours program from April 2023.
Mills, speaking from his home in Auckland on the latest Fox Cricket podcast, explained the need for all countries to make sacrifices for the good of the global game.
The current future tours program expires in March 2023 and beyond that the World Test Championship is just one of many priorities the International Cricket Council (ICC) is attempting to juggle.
T20 and T10 leagues loom large because of the money they generate via TV rights, as do traditional and lucrative Test match ups involving Australia, India and England.
And not even The Ashes – cricket’s oldest international series – should be safe from change, according to the global players’ boss.
“The biggest barrier to having more structure to a program is those big five-match Test series’ and perhaps we can have some compromise there,” Mills said on Fox Cricket’s Follow-On podcast.
“We all know how important that is and we love The Ashes, but maybe there has to be some compromise on that and how often The Ashes is played. Maybe it might make it more attractive. They seem to have played it a lot in the last 20 years.”
The notion that Australia could face England for the coveted urn in a three-Test series every three years would make traditionalists and administrators shudder. But Mills said it would streamline a broken system.
Moreover, England is due to play a five-Test series against India at home later this year, reaffirming Mills’ concern that the three wealthiest cricket nations look after each other above all else.
“Everyone is going to have to give a bit,” he said.
The peculiarities of the current World Test Championship have seen some series’ simply not count towards the table.
England’s tour of New Zealand in late 2019 – which the tourists won 1-0 – did not contribute towards the global ladder, which the Kiwis are now at the top of.
Asked whether The Ashes could be played outside the realms of the World Test Championship in order to keep it at five Tests, Mills shook his head.
“When boards can freely add cricket whenever they like it gets confusing for everyone and doesn’t have the same meaning,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s good enough when the players involved don’t understand how the system works. What chance do the fans have? It needs work and it can get better. But it has shown more interest in the Test game for the last 12-18 months.”
Mills urged the ICC to get all the member boards in a room and “lock the doors” to fix the problems facing the global game.
Scheduling issues, which he concedes have been amplified by Covid-19, are at the forefront of FICA’s work and have been since the players’ union was founded in 1998.
“Quite frankly, I think the ICC and the member boards need to step up and do something about it,” he continued.
“I don’t think we can continue to accept this notion of everyone acting in their own best interests and thinking that’s a good outcome for the game. Because it isn’t.
“It might mean that the bigger boards cannot play each other as often as they would like to… But is there a broader set of principles we can adopt so they play everyone a certain number of times over a period of time, whether that’s an eight or 10-year period?
It’s up to the ICC to show some leadership. A good starting point would be to get the key people in the room – perhaps locked for three or four days – and see what they can come up with.
“At the moment it just appears like everyone is acting in isolation and protecting their own interests… If we are truly interested in the global game then that is not the right approach.”
In a revealing piece for The Australian recently, Gideon Haigh wrote that Australia are “leaners not lifters” on the international stage.
Pressed on the notion of selfishness, Mills stopped short of singling out Cricket Australia, even though the men’s national team has not hosted Bangladesh for a Test tour since 2003, has failed to tour the West Indies since 2015 (and doesn’t have a trip planned) and has postponed series’ against Afghanistan, Bangladesh and South Africa in recent times.
Instead, he directed his criticism towards the ICC, which has a new chairman Greg Barclay, who lives about 20km away from Mills in Auckland and is on the record conceding the World Test Championship must “go back to the drawing board.”
“The reality is the ICC is a toothless tiger,” Mills said.
“We’ve had periods of time – we can go back to the big three takeover a few years ago – and it was made very clear to everyone that the ICC was there to organise one event per year, the umpires and the match referees.
“I think we’ve moved past that a bit now. I would like to think the ICC… would actually mandate the boards, which is effectively the ICC mandating themselves and the money around the ICC board table.
“Cricket is much bigger than its commercials. They are important but we need to look after one another first and foremost. That’s a really important point.”
Also on The Follow-On podcast, Mills discussed:
- Why Indians should be allowed to play in other T20 leagues around the world
- How the IPL can fit in with global tournaments
- Gender inequality
- ICC events and how the World Test Championship should be formatted
- The future of pink ball cricket and four-day Tests
- An update on FICA’s battle with the ICC over the commercial rights of players
Source : https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricke...t/news-story/c9194dc349f20e69d5a2bd0fda50576f
This is the view of FICA (Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations) executive chairman Heath Mills, who is lobbying the game’s global powers for a streamlined and fair future tours program from April 2023.
Mills, speaking from his home in Auckland on the latest Fox Cricket podcast, explained the need for all countries to make sacrifices for the good of the global game.
The current future tours program expires in March 2023 and beyond that the World Test Championship is just one of many priorities the International Cricket Council (ICC) is attempting to juggle.
T20 and T10 leagues loom large because of the money they generate via TV rights, as do traditional and lucrative Test match ups involving Australia, India and England.
And not even The Ashes – cricket’s oldest international series – should be safe from change, according to the global players’ boss.
“The biggest barrier to having more structure to a program is those big five-match Test series’ and perhaps we can have some compromise there,” Mills said on Fox Cricket’s Follow-On podcast.
“We all know how important that is and we love The Ashes, but maybe there has to be some compromise on that and how often The Ashes is played. Maybe it might make it more attractive. They seem to have played it a lot in the last 20 years.”
The notion that Australia could face England for the coveted urn in a three-Test series every three years would make traditionalists and administrators shudder. But Mills said it would streamline a broken system.
Moreover, England is due to play a five-Test series against India at home later this year, reaffirming Mills’ concern that the three wealthiest cricket nations look after each other above all else.
“Everyone is going to have to give a bit,” he said.
The peculiarities of the current World Test Championship have seen some series’ simply not count towards the table.
England’s tour of New Zealand in late 2019 – which the tourists won 1-0 – did not contribute towards the global ladder, which the Kiwis are now at the top of.
Asked whether The Ashes could be played outside the realms of the World Test Championship in order to keep it at five Tests, Mills shook his head.
“When boards can freely add cricket whenever they like it gets confusing for everyone and doesn’t have the same meaning,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s good enough when the players involved don’t understand how the system works. What chance do the fans have? It needs work and it can get better. But it has shown more interest in the Test game for the last 12-18 months.”
Mills urged the ICC to get all the member boards in a room and “lock the doors” to fix the problems facing the global game.
Scheduling issues, which he concedes have been amplified by Covid-19, are at the forefront of FICA’s work and have been since the players’ union was founded in 1998.
“Quite frankly, I think the ICC and the member boards need to step up and do something about it,” he continued.
“I don’t think we can continue to accept this notion of everyone acting in their own best interests and thinking that’s a good outcome for the game. Because it isn’t.
“It might mean that the bigger boards cannot play each other as often as they would like to… But is there a broader set of principles we can adopt so they play everyone a certain number of times over a period of time, whether that’s an eight or 10-year period?
It’s up to the ICC to show some leadership. A good starting point would be to get the key people in the room – perhaps locked for three or four days – and see what they can come up with.
“At the moment it just appears like everyone is acting in isolation and protecting their own interests… If we are truly interested in the global game then that is not the right approach.”
In a revealing piece for The Australian recently, Gideon Haigh wrote that Australia are “leaners not lifters” on the international stage.
Pressed on the notion of selfishness, Mills stopped short of singling out Cricket Australia, even though the men’s national team has not hosted Bangladesh for a Test tour since 2003, has failed to tour the West Indies since 2015 (and doesn’t have a trip planned) and has postponed series’ against Afghanistan, Bangladesh and South Africa in recent times.
Instead, he directed his criticism towards the ICC, which has a new chairman Greg Barclay, who lives about 20km away from Mills in Auckland and is on the record conceding the World Test Championship must “go back to the drawing board.”
“The reality is the ICC is a toothless tiger,” Mills said.
“We’ve had periods of time – we can go back to the big three takeover a few years ago – and it was made very clear to everyone that the ICC was there to organise one event per year, the umpires and the match referees.
“I think we’ve moved past that a bit now. I would like to think the ICC… would actually mandate the boards, which is effectively the ICC mandating themselves and the money around the ICC board table.
“Cricket is much bigger than its commercials. They are important but we need to look after one another first and foremost. That’s a really important point.”
Also on The Follow-On podcast, Mills discussed:
- Why Indians should be allowed to play in other T20 leagues around the world
- How the IPL can fit in with global tournaments
- Gender inequality
- ICC events and how the World Test Championship should be formatted
- The future of pink ball cricket and four-day Tests
- An update on FICA’s battle with the ICC over the commercial rights of players
Source : https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricke...t/news-story/c9194dc349f20e69d5a2bd0fda50576f
