Saudi Arabia takes big steps into cricket’s crowded calendar

At the conclusion of the DP World ILT20 franchise league on Feb. 12, the World Cricket Committee of the Marylebone Cricket Club met, not at Lords in London, but in Dubai.

The venue was the headquarters of the International Cricket Council (ICC), which moved there from Lords in 2005. The choice of venue and the timing to coincide with a franchise league could easily be a metaphor for the way that the game has evolved in the past 20 years.

It may simply have been a point of convenience, given the geographical dispersal of the committee. The chair is British, as are two other members. There are two Sri Lankans, one each from Australia, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies. Two women and two umpires sit on the committee, which has eight former successful international cricketers, all of whom captained their country. The committee’s purpose is to discuss and advise on contemporary issues affecting the game.

In Dubai, it is understood that most of the meeting focused on the future of the game. The ICC’s Future Tours Programme (FTP) for bilateral cricket is currently on a four-year cycle between 2023 and 2027. Efforts by the committee to consider what the game’s landscape might look like in 10 years, if left to grow organically, are welcome. Blue sky thinking and analysis of the game appear to be in short supply, publicly, at least. At the same time, any attempts at predictions are fraught with uncertainty.

Hence, it is not a surprise that the committee fell back on an analysis of the obvious — that the men’s game, as from the beginning of 2023, is “saturated with franchise competitions.” Heavy investment in these, especially by Indian corporate money, means that none of them will disappear in a