LONDON: The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has recommended limiting the number of One-day Internationals after the 2027 World Cup to improve quality and create space in the calendar, as well as establishing a fund to help smaller nations play Test cricket.

The custodian of the game’s laws also called for more funds to be directed to women’s cricket, saying “significant transformation” was needed to protect the sport overall.

“The suggestion is that a scarcity of ODI cricket would increase the quality, achieved by removing bilateral ODIs, other than in the one-year preceding each World Cup,” the MCC said in a statement on Tuesday. “This would, as a consequence, also create much-needed space in the global cricketing calendar.”

The suggestions would only be able to be accommodated after cricket’s 2023-27 cycle.

While the MCC’s World Cricket Committee (WCC) panel welcomed more money flowing into the game, it noted the financial disparity among members and voiced “particular concern” for the survival of Test cricket outside India, Australia and England.

The committee, which met during the second Ashes Test at Lord’s, acknowledged the “growing unaffordability to host men’s Test match cricket in many nations” and recommended a financial audit.

“This audit of operational costs versus commercial return would help the ICC identify nations in need of support in order to sustain a Test match programme,” it said. “This need could be subsequently addressed via a separate Test fund, established to protect the sanctity of Test match cricket.”

It also recommended a strategic fund to aid growth of women’s cricket. “It’s time for the global game to reset,” panel chairman Mike Gatting said.

“The WCC firmly believes that if we are to protect the game of cricket as a whole, immediate action must be taken to bring about significant transformation in the sport,” added the former England captain.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2023