The various boards and the ICC are currently in the final stages of putting together the next future tours programme (FTP) with discussions around the World Test Championship (WTC) running in parallel.
When asked if the 12-team model could be signed off on, Greenberg said, “I think that’s what will happen for the next two years.
“It wasn’t very popular when I said that [about Test cricket], but I still say it’s a statement of fact that over time it’s getting more and more difficult for countries to play Test cricket because it is so expensive,” Greenberg said. “When I say it’s expensive, don’t take that comment as being [about] putting on Test matches. It’s the ability to invest in your system to create a structure for red-ball cricketers. You can’t just magically find 11 players to play Test cricket.
“There might be a cycle of four years where we play slightly less ODIs, more coming into a World Cup cycle and maybe less in the outer years. I don’t think it stops in the outer years, though. It might be a sort of up-and-down system between T20 and ODI cricket”
Todd Greenberg
“I think there is a world where there will be member nations who don’t play Test cricket, or they might have to play more away Test cricket than they do at home in order to keep Test cricket in their country [alive] and keep playing that format. I think we’ve got to think about it differently. This whole reciprocal nature is potentially sending some countries broke.”
Australia are keen to play South Africa across a five-Test series in the future, although scheduling challenges may prove the stumbling block. CA is looking for another opponent who could warrant longer series outside of just England and India.
“We would love to host South Africa for a five-Test series,” Greenberg said. “[But] there’s a real challenge in that between our organisations because they play in a similar period of the year. I can understand that. It would be like asking us, can we come and play in South Africa during December and January. You know our answer would be ‘no, we can’t], because we’re protecting our own windows.
“So that’s why it’s difficult. But we’re in constant conversations with them. I’ll have conversations while I’m here with them. I think South Africa are a really strong Test-playing country despite their commercial and financial challenges. We’d like to see them continue to play Test cricket. We’d love to host them.”
From a commercial perspective, Greenberg also suggested that Pakistan were an option for longer series given the expat community in Australia. They will tour Australia in December 2027 for three Tests after which Sri Lanka will go across in February 2028 after the BBL, with CA having blocked out January beyond the Sydney Test except in years when the team tours India.
In terms of ODI cricket, there was talk at the ICC’s workshop last week in Dubai of multilateral tournaments in a bid to give ODIs more context. One of the ideas mooted by a member was of an Intercontinental Cup, in which the best continental teams faced off.
Greenberg agreed with the ICC’s broader stance that the format needed more jeopardy outside of the World Cup once every four years, but it’s understood there were doubts about how many new tournaments would fit into the schedule.
“The challenge is how do you do that and still ensure that the commercial returns inside your FTP agreements are retained,” he said. “I think we’ve got some work to do on that. There might be a cycle of four years where we play slightly less ODIs, more coming into a World Cup cycle and maybe less in the outer years. I don’t think it stops in the outer years, though. It might be a sort of up-and-down system between T20 and ODI cricket.
“Everyone in high performance tells me how important ODI cricket is to the formation of players in the talent pathway. And everyone at the ICC level tells me how fundamentally important the ODI World Cup is to the commercial outcomes of global cricket. Those things are really important. If you anchor those two principles, then you’ve just got to find ways to make those games meaningful.”
Australia’s next home FTP for 2027-31 in Test cricket is nearly confirmed. Following Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 2027-28, India visit in 2028-29 and England in 2029-30. Only the home opponents for 2030-31 are yet to be confirmed.
Andrew McGlashan is a deputy editor at Cricinfo