Former India captain Kapil Dev has urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) to take efforts to safeguard the Test and one-day international formats in the face of the global expansion of lucrative domestic Twenty20 competitions.
The development of T20 leagues has stressed cricket’s already overcrowded calendar, with new contests slated to debut in the United Arab Emirates and South Africa early next year.
The pioneering Indian Premier League is expected to be handed a prolonged window in the ICC’s next international calendar, while England and Australia are also expected to receive dedicated windows for their local franchise-based leagues.
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Because of the tight schedule, several players have pulled out of formats, including England’s Ben Stokes, who withdrew out of ODIs last month, and South Africa, which cancelled a trip of Australia in January because it coincided with the start of its T20 league.
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The ICC has placed the onus on member boards to strike a balance between domestic and bilateral cricket in order to better manage player workloads, but Dev believes the ICC has a “greater duty” to administer the sport.
“It’s going the way of European football,” Dev told the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday. “They don’t compete against one other. It happens once every four years (during the World Cup).
“Will we have the World Cup and then spend the rest of the time playing club (T20 franchise) cricket?” Will cricketers someday play mostly in the IPL, the Big Bash, or something similar?
“The ICC has to spend more time looking into how they can secure the future of one-day cricket, Test match cricket, and not only club cricket,” added Dev, who won the World Cup as India’s captain in 1983.
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