The International Cricket Council (ICC) CEO Sanjog Gupta has said that the old way of playing bilateral series without much context cannot continue. However, Gupta has insisted that ODI cricket still has a strong future if the 50-over format gets a clear purpose.
The ICC CEO also spoke about the future of Test and ODI cricket at a time when T20 leagues are becoming more popular around the world. He feels a fan needs a proper reason to follow the game. Amid this, Danny Lamb was forced to retire at 30 after a serious spinal cord injury.
Sanjog Gupta sends strong warning over random bilateral series
Sanjog Gupta believes that international cricket needs more meaning behind every series. He stressed that randomly arranged bilateral matches may not attract enough attention, money, or interest in the long run.
The ICC CEO believes that the focus should be on four important areas—context, culture, competition, and competitiveness—to make the matches feel more important to fans and give teams a bigger reason to invest in them.
Sanjog Gupta was quoted as saying by PTI: “The era of randomly scheduled bilateral series has to come to an end, because countries will not be able to sustain cricket without context, culture, competition, and competitiveness, which require significant investment of resources, both financial and non-financial. It’s important to stay focused on the four levers that drive attention and affiliation—context, culture, competition, and competitiveness.”
However, the global body does not control bilateral series, as the individual cricket boards decide those series and also keep the media and sponsorship income from them. Amid this, Cricket Australia makes major betting sponsorship change ahead of Bangladesh Tests.
ICC CEO reveals how ODI Cricket can survive and thrive
The ICC CEO also addressed the concerns over ODI cricket amid the growing T20 leagues around the world. Gupta believes that the 50-over format still has a strong place and can sustain itself and thrive with a proper plan. He said the plan could be to connect ODIs more closely with the World Cup.
Gupta further explained, “ODIs can continue not just to survive but to thrive. There is a place for the format in the product portfolio, which is inextricably linked to men’s and women’s ICC Cricket World Cups. We need to look at what we want the format to stand for and how we want it to evolve, including the expanse of participation.”
Sanjog Gupta reveals ICC’s big cricket vision
Meanwhile, Gupta does not want cricket to simply protect the existing system, as his focus is on growth across every format. The CEO admitted that T20 cricket remains the main tool for taking cricket to new audiences, but that does not mean ODI and Test cricket are being ignored.
He also pointed towards famous sporting events such as Wimbledon and The Masters, which have kept their traditional value while finding new ways to remain attractive to modern fans.
Gupta added, “Our ambition has to be growth; our ambition should never be to maintain the status quo. Because in this world, where population is growing, attention is getting disaggregated and affiliation is hard to sustain, if you’re not growing, you’re dying.”
Wimbledon model for cricket?
Test cricket still has huge value because of its history, prestige, and tradition. But the format is facing financial problems, especially outside India, England, and Australia.
Gupta feels Test cricket cannot depend only on its history, saying matches need better scheduling, promotion, and marketing so that fans see them as important events. However, WTC keeps fans exciting for the Tests.
