Newly-appointed ICC Chairman Greg Barclay has said that the governing body must deliver their showpiece events over the next three years or cricket will face serious financial consequences.

The global COVID-19 outbreak forced the ICC to reschedule three of their world tournaments, and Barclay said they were contracted to deliver them within the current broadcasting agreement.

“We have got to deliver the world events that are to come and those that are postponed,” Barclay told Reuters about the agreement that expires in mid-2023.

“Not just for the cricketing outcomes but there are commercial concerns as well.”

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 ICC Women’s World Cup 2021 have been moved to 2022, while the Men’s World Cup 20203 has been pushed back to a later date in the same year.

“If we fail to deliver all of those events then we will be penalised by the broadcasters and we won’t receive the last of the ongoing payments,” added Barclay.

“That, in turn, is going to affect the ICC’s ability to invest in its own programmes and enable it to make distributions to members. Unfortunately a lot of the ICC members are heavily reliant on those disbursements.”

Barclay replaces Imran Khwaja as ICC chief and the former has previously served as New Zealand Cricket’s representative on the ICC board.

In his new role, Barclay wants to ensure that women’s cricket continues to make progress.

“We have an obligation that it’s a game for everyone,” he said. “We have got to continue to move towards parity.”

He is also keen to develop the game in non-traditional markets and felt the United States was an area they could tap into.

“We have to look at regions where there is good potential for growth,” he said. “The U.S. appears to be the place to go.

“It has a massive advantage in that its traditional audiences from sub-continental Asia have massive diasporas in North America and there are large audiences there for cricket.

“We should continue with that.”

(Inputs from Reuters)