News & Media

26th March 2025

WCA has today released its report: Protecting History, Embracing Change. A Unified Coherent Global Future. The Report (accessible HERE) is the culmination of a six month review of cricket’s global structure, led by an expert multi stakeholder Sub-Committee Chaired by Paul Marsh, and in conjunction with The Sports Consultancy. The Report:

• Draws on interviews with 64 senior game stakeholders, including players, administrators, and commercial and media partners, in addition to the compilation of data from various experts
• Focuses on the ‘top of the game,’ where the best players compete, and on the cricket that funds the rest of the sport globally (ICC Events, bilateral international cricket, major DT20 leagues)
• Covers both the men’s and women’s games – focusing on issues applicable to both, but at different stages of coming to pass

1. Cricket’s Direction of Travel

• Global cricket is shifting towards a ‘club v club’ based model – that is a multi-employer, transnational system for players, with T20 increasingly the dominant format globally
• Revenue is moving towards cricket with context, jeopardy, and calendar space – and away from bilateral international cricket
• Current scheduling and economic models embed inequity and lost opportunity – with an estimated:
  • 83% of global cricket revenue shared between three countries and 11 of the last 13 major ICC Events won by the same countries
  • 2% of global cricket revenue distributed to countries ranked 13 – 108
  • 10.5% of global cricket revenue shared with the players who help to generate it

2. Major Problems IdentifiedWhilst many of the shifts in cricket are positive, some significant problems with the global game across four areas have been identified by stakeholders. These require urgent addressing:

• Scheduling – Current global cricket scheduling is chaotic, inconsistent and confusing, limiting the overall quality of the product, and putting the future of the international game at risk
• Economics – Global cricket’s finances are not optimised, balanced or used effectively to achieve competitive balance and growth, resulting in the sport not reaching its global potential
• Regulations – Cricket’s global regulations are outdated for the current transnational era, with arbitrary restrictions and limited protections and security for players, and risks to game integrity
• Leadership – There is a lack of overarching leadership in the game providing global direction, leading to regional self-interest, short-term thinking and an imbalance of power

3. Recommended Solutions
The Report makes a number of specific recommendations to address these problems, guided by principles.

Scheduling
Cricket’s global schedule should align international and domestic formats to drive growth, ensuring all matches have clear context and purpose, through:

• Simpler, easier to follow global calendar and international competition structures – which should apply from 2028 and 2029 onwards. This requires more centralised management of the schedule
• Scheduling windows for ‘Core International Cricket’ – which should be implemented to cover one match per format against all other teams within consistent divisional championships with promotion and relegation, culminating in qualification for existing pinnacle ICC Events across two year cycles
• This will allow international cricket to co-exist with the growing DT20 leagues – rather than compete with them, thereby ensuring its future survival. It will also ensure most of the calendar remains for the market to continue to evolve and innovate

Economics
Cricket’s financial structure should support global growth and competitive balance, through:

• A centralised Global Growth and Development Fund – to be established, underpinned by pooled rights model applicable only to Core International Cricket, to fund Core International Cricket and other global initiatives 
• ICC revenue distribution – occurring within minimum and maximum parameters
• Stronger regulation and accountability – on how distributed money is spent in all countries
• Player revenue sharing parameters – to be applied in all sanctioned cricket

Regulations
Cricket’s global regulations need to reflect the new transnational reality to protect the game and people in it, through:

• Fit for purpose global regulations for professional cricket – developed to establish modern global calendar, player movement and professional cricket standards

Leadership
Global cricket needs to come together with clear leadership to reflect the sport’s changing landscape and prevent fragmentation, through:

• Modernising the ICC – to ensure it is empowered to lead the global game and built on shared ownership, independence, and representation reflective of the whole sport
• Establishment of a Global Game Leadership Committee – as an interim step to make recommendations to the game and to the ICC

4. Benefits of Making These Changes
The report highlights the expected stakeholder response, along with independent modelling that indicates proposed changes will have significant benefits for all stakeholders, including:

• Survival of international cricket in more than just a few countries – the future of international cricket is at genuine risk. These recommendations would entrench a place for a base level of sustainable international cricket in the calendar
• Increase in revenue – an estimated addition of more than USD 240M per annum into the global cricket economy, along with significant cost savings
• Easier to follow cricket calendar – with greater consistency, meaning, jeopardy, and competition integrity
• Enhanced global growth and competitive balance – through investment in men’s and women’s depth in international cricket
• Greater ability for National Governing Bodies and DT20 Leagues to plan and structure high performance, contracting and player retention strategies
• Enhanced player protections – reducing the need for players to choose between representing their countries and optimising their careers

WCA Board and Global Game Structure Sub-Committee Member Comment:
 
WCA Chairman Heath Mills thanked all contributors and said:
“This process has brought to light an almost game wide appetite for change and a need to address the significant issues with the game’s global structure.”
“Whilst there is no silver bullet, the report defines the trends, and major issues facing the sport at global level, along with some recommended solutions, intended to be both aspirational and realistic. The players have an interest in the health of the game globally, and we look forward to discussing and debating the report over the coming months.”

Sub-Committee Chair Paul Marsh said:
“On behalf of the sub-committee we thank the many people who care about the future of cricket and who have contributed to the process.”
“Whilst there are a number of positive trends in cricket, there is no doubt that global cricket is at an inflection point. Many of the issues highlighted in the report are challenging, but they need to be discussed if we are to create a more sustainable future in more than just a few countries.”
“Creating a clearer global calendar and incorporating more consistency across formats along with greater competition integrity and context for international cricket, will benefit cricket and all of its stakeholders hugely.”

Sana Mir said:
“Cricket has an opportunity to come together and define a much simpler, clearer and more unified future across both the men’s and women’s games. This report needs the attention of anyone who cares about the future of cricket.”

WCA CEO Tom Moffat said:
“Cricket is changing fast, but its transition is currently largely unmanaged at global level. There is an urgent need for cricket to reset and modernise its global scheduling, regulations and leadership to keep up with the pace of change and ensure a more balanced future.”
“Every cricket country is part of a global ecosystem, reliant on other countries and their players for their own success.”

Tom Harrison said:
“Cricket’s finances are not optimised because competition structures have become incoherent in the search for more short-term value. Cricket of consequence, rather than cricket for cricket’s sake is the key to addressing this.”

Player Observations:

Laura Wolvaardt, Current International Captain
“Our sport has so many great things going for it, but there is potential for it to be so much better, and we’re encouraging the whole game to come together and help it to achieve its global potential.”

Rashid Khan, Current International Captain
“Cricket has given me so much and I want to see it be strong and sustainable in more than just a handful of countries. We’re urging the game’s leadership to act on the information and suggestions contained in this report.”

Pat Cummins, Current International Captain
“We need to step into our future as a sport, but there are some important parts of our history, and in particular international cricket, that we want to see protected and thriving into the future.”

Heather Knight, Current International Captain
“As players we understand our responsibility to the game, and we have an interest in it being successful. A unified sport is going to achieve better outcomes than a fragmented one.”


Protecting History, Embracing Change. A Unified Coherent Global Future Sub-Committee:
Paul Marsh Chair (Former ACA CEO and current AFLPA CEO)
Sana Mir (Former Pakistan Captain, Broadcaster)
Sanjog Gupta (Head of Jio-Star)
Tom Harrison (Former ECB CEO and current Six Nations CEO)
James Kitching (Former Director of Regulatory, FIFA)
Tony Irish (Former CEO SACA and Executive Chairman of WCA)
Ex Officio: Tom Moffat (WCA CEO), Stephanie Bond (WCA Head of Legal), Cameron Borgas (WCA Head of Player and Member Operations)

For media enquiries please contact media@theworldca.com 

FICA name changed to World Cricketers’ Association at recent Board meeting held in New York during Men’s T20WC.

Read more here https://t.co/VTpg4dDCUV

16 May 2024

DUBLIN – Cricket Ireland and the Irish Cricketers Association (ICA) have reached an agreement on the terms of player contracts, paving the way for men’s and women’s contracts to be issued for 2024-25.

Cricket Ireland and the ICA will now finalise the terms of an inaugural Memorandum of Understanding, which both parties believe is progressing very well. This agreement will secure the overall relationship between Cricket Ireland and contracted players and will reflect the best-practice relationships that exist in other Federation of International Cricketers Associations (FICA)-aligned countries around the world.

Contracts will be issued immediately and will apply until the end of February 2025.

Further details about the MoU and individual player contracts will be published in due course.

Warren Deutrom, CEO of Cricket Ireland, said:

“We are delighted to have reached agreement around player contract terms for this year. They are complex discussions which go beyond a mere ‘how much’ determination, into revenue share models, the balance between salary and match fees, the acceleration of women’s player remuneration, bonus payments and year-on-year costs, tax efficiency etc.

“From the inception of player payments, the Cricket Ireland Board has always prioritised our senior men’s and women’s players to reward them for their huge part in driving forward the sport in Ireland. They were the first group rewarded when we became full members, and players have received the biggest share of the new money in Irish cricket this year. That is as it should be.

“With the growth of franchise cricket, we know players have more choice than ever before, and I believe we have done our best to reward players for their hard work and success without forgetting our duty to fund the rest of the sport, particularly at grassroots, club and provincial level, to ensure we can produce future internationals as well. There is no getting round the fact that our late budget confirmation has meant these negotiations have stretched into the season. This is far from ideal, but an exceptional circumstance that won’t happen again now we are clear on our minimum ICC funding pot for at least the next four years, which is such a critical factor in our revenue share model.

“I want to sincerely thank Cecelia and everyone at ICA for helping us navigate these complex discussions – there has been an excellent level of cooperation, formal and informal, which means we remained focus on reaching an agreed position, and that same approach will surely help us reach agreement in the coming months on our first-ever MOU with ICA.”

Cecelia Joyce, President of the ICA, said:

The ICA was founded in 2017 with the core aims of advocating and providing a voice for players and contributing to the growth of the game in Ireland.

Our members have been unified throughout this whole process and the outcome is a significant one for all professional players in Ireland, and the game. It ensures greater transparency and clarity with respect to the players’ share of revenue and on contracting structures for the next period.

The most successful models in Cricket and other sports globally are built on partnership and acknowledge players as key stakeholders. This outcome is a significant step towards that model and we are looking forward to finalising the first comprehensive MOU between CI and ICA to align with best practice as a priority.

In my role as ICA President, I would personally like to thank the ICA team and all ICA members for their faith, their absolute commitment and their hard work during this journey. I also want to thank Warren and his colleagues at CI for the collaborative way we have managed to finalise these discussions. This is a key moment for all professional cricketers and indeed Cricket in Ireland.”

The Irish Cricketers’ Association were very happy to be in attendance with members and players, alongside Cricket Ireland for the announcement of this landmark moment in the history of not only women’s cricket in Ireland, but also women’s sport in this country.

It is fitting that this announcement of full time contracts for the Irish Women’s Cricket Team is made in the same week as International Women’s Day.  This real investment into professionalising women’s cricket shows growing support and respect for women in cricket, which we think reflects growth in all areas of our society. It sends women and girls the message that there is a future for them in sport and in cricket in Ireland. We hope it also tells other sports governing bodies that this is what is required to keep up with cricket. 

The ICA has worked closely with Cricket Ireland over the past few months in agreeing this new contract structure which we hope is just the beginning in rewarding those athletes who are at the top of their sport, and in enabling them to focus on their cricket. Continued investment in the players will allow Irish women’s cricket to grow, improve and compete with the world’s best.

“This is a significant investment in the players and a watershed moment in Irish women’s sport. It’s great to be a part of it. Is the contract structure perfect? No: but it is a good start! And with genuine buy-in from the players with continued support from the ICA and a good working relationship with Cricket Ireland, I am excited about this next phase for the Irish Women’s Cricket Team.” Cecelia Joyce Vice President ICA

Cricket is setting the standard for women’s sport in this country, but it is clear that this is just the beginning. The ICA will continue to advocate for more investment in players and in the women’s game to ensure not only that the sport we love continues to grow and thrive, but that those key people in the game, the players, are valued, rewarded and given the opportunities they deserve, to flourish and drive the game onwards to their benefit and to the benefit of the sport.

“It’s a great occasion for women’s sport and in particular women’s cricket here in Ireland to have these contracts for the International Team.  The team’s performance over the last 12 – 18 months has been brilliant and hopefully these contracts will help improve the team further going forward into a pivotal 24 months.  Looking back to when the men got their contracts in 2009, professionalising the game helped it grow here in Ireland, pushing the team to achieve unforeseen heights which allows Cricket Ireland to be in the position where it is today. We hope these contracts will do the same for the women’s team and help bring the performances of the team to new levels to achieve things things on the world stage. It is great for women’s sport and in particular cricket, that these contracts will help increase the awareness of the women’s game, make it more visible to the public, inspire more and more young girls to play cricket and in turn see cricket as a way of earning a living going forward.” Kevin O’Brien ICA President.