Cricket South Africa (CSA) Director of Cricket Graeme Smith has on Monday (February 15) called for the International Cricket Council (ICC) to show leadership to prevent the game from being dominated by India, England, and Australia, as the smaller nations are being sidelined by the “Big Three” – BCCI, ECB and CA.
The tours between cricket's Big Three - India, Australia, and England remain on schedule for 2021, but the less wealthy nations find it tough to secure financially-rewarding visits from the top sides and are struggling financially in this challenging time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While England and India are set to meet in nine Tests this year, Australia has already played the Indians at home and is also set for the Ashes series with England later this year.
Smith believes the Future Tours Programme is dominated by India, England, and Australia and it has become too fluid with the big three nations able to simply opt out to fulfill the obligations, leaving the lesser cricket nation with fewer attractive fixtures in the international calendar.
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After Australia had indefinitely postponed the tour of South Africa for a three-Test series in March 2021, Smith said the leadership at the ICC needs to address the issue and be fair with everyone, while warning the ICC to make sure the smaller member nations must get their fair share of Test tours against the so-called “Big Three” or face future domination of the Twenty20 leagues.
Smith told a virtual press conference on Monday: “The game needs leadership right now that understands the complexities. I don’t think world cricket wants just three nations competing against each other in 10 years’ time. How does that benefit the game?”
The former captain further added, “That would amplify the (Twenty20) leagues and they will get bigger and bigger, and probably the rest of the member nations will have little or no (international) content. The leadership at the ICC needs to address these issues now, which are being fast-tracked because of COVID. I think they have been caught a little off-guard.
FTP will be a hugely challenging thing going forward with potentially eight ICC tournaments in the eight years, an extended IPL (Indian Premier League), and a lot of the calendar dominated by India, England, and Australia. It makes it challenging for the rest of the member nations, and just amplifies the stress on the likes of us and the other members that are looking for good content.”
Meanwhile, Smith admitted that the relationship between South Africa and Australia has become “strained” following the cancellation of the Test tour, since they had invested a considerable amount of money to meet CA’s lengthy list of medical safety demands for the tour and at the last minute, they canceled the tour, leaving the financially-stricken CSA with a loss of revenue.
However, he reiterated that South Africa would like to play Australia “in this calendar cycle” but admitted it is becoming increasingly tough to find a window for the Test series.
Smith signed off by saying, “The relationship is definitely strained at this stage. There is an effort from our side to engage and set up a meeting at the board level. Engagement needs to happen to improve things between South Africa and Australia. We've had some engagement with the operations side of Cricket Australia and it hasn't been positive on trying to find a window but we are working hard.”
(With Reuters Inputs)
