South Africa captain Faf du Plessis on Sunday (December 29) became the first major name among international players to have publically criticised India, England and Australia, the so-called "Big 3" countries, who have been pressurising the ICC since 2014 into making decisions in their best interests rather than what is best for the overall growth of cricket. 

For the eight-year cycle from 2015-23, the ICC's funding model has been heavily skewed in these three nation's favour at the cost of the rest of the world and they are the ones who'll be hosting all the major events in this period; unlike the previous cycle when the game's finance was properly managed and spread across equally to ensure neither the lower-ranked full members are losing out nor the associates marginalised. 

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"The last year or so you can see what's going on in terms of the big three countries," Du Plessis told reporters after his team's Boxing Day Test win over England in Centurion, replying to a query over Big 3's proposed four-nation ODI Super Series, a ploy to generate enough votes against ICC's proposed extra major world event in the next cycle 2023-31. 

"There's a lot of movement going towards that, a lot more matches being played against the top three, or big three. It's probably better if you include more teams, the better to grow the game as much as you can," Du Plessis added. 

"There's a lot of smaller nations not playing a lot of Test cricket, they're actually playing less."

Outside the Big 3, nobody can claim to have the same level of resources amid the major full-members. As for the likes of Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Ireland and the rest of the world, they have struggled to make ends meet for a while with regards to their finance. Ireland, for example, had to cancel a home Test with Bangladesh next year because the board there can't pay the cost required to organise it. 

(Inputs from AFP)