International cricket, matches between nations, take place under the umbrella of the ICC (International Cricket Council), the sport’s world governing body, similar to FIFA in football.
They are responsible for administering the game, overseeing and implementing its Code of Conduct, and they are also responsible for the staging of all ICC events (officially sanctioned international games and tournaments). However, it will usually be individual cricket boards who agree to the timing and dates of tours with each other within this overall context.
The tours are when one country visits another to play a series of matches against them, similar to baseball. There is usually prize money involved with these tours. They’re not just for exhibition. And their international ICC rankings improve since all these matches are sanctioned by the ICC. There are even tri-series, where three teams play together in a mini tournament. Trophies are sometimes awarded too, like the winning team, the Man of the series, and the individual Man of the matches, similar to the MVP in the States.
The ICC currently has 108 members drawn from across the world, but there is a distinction in the status of some of these members.
Full members are essentially those countries qualified to play official test matches, the original form of the international game. Full members are those nations traditionally regarded as major cricket-playing nations. There are 12 full members as of now and includes the likes of Australia, England, South Africa, India and Pakistan.
Associate members, 94 in total, are those countries where the game is not so well established, but still where the sport has a firm presence.
Rankings
Like other governing bodies – the ATP in tennis for example, or the PGA in golf – the ICC also offers a world ranking system for the teams. And these rankings help determine who qualifies for major tournaments automatically, and those that must go through some form of qualifying competition.
The three formats
There are essentially three formats of international cricket. Test matches, one-day internationals (normally abbreviated to ODIs) and Twenty 20 matches (T20s for short). Other forms of the game such as 10 overs a side (T10s) matches do not have official sanction.
Note that there are different ICC team rankings for the three different formats: test, ODI, and T20. So a team actually has three different rankings for the three formats. For example, right now, India is ranked 1st for T20, 3rd for ODI, and 2nd for Test.
Test Matches
Test matches were the original form of international cricket, and, in the eyes of some traditionalists, remain the purest form of the game. They can last up to five days, and consist of each side having two innings each.
Between 1877 and 1939 there were 99 test matches with no time limit, they were played until there was a definitive result. However, for logistical reasons as much as anything else, these were phased out.
The first test was played between Australia and England in 1877 in Melbourne. Initially, these were the only two test-playing nations, but more were gradually admitted to the international fold, South Africa in 1889, the West Indies in 1928, New Zealand in 1930, and India in 1932, for example.
It is no coincidence that the countries that have played test cricket used to be members of the British Empire in some form or other. The game originated in England and was exported from there to its colonies. There is still a big chunk of the globe where it still struggles to have a significant footprint – mainland Europe, Northern Asia, North and South America, and most of Africa, for example.
The problem with test matches
The problem with test matches is their duration. They can last up to five days, which involves a significant investment of time for anybody wanting to see the whole match. And, because they last so long, they can seem quite leisurely affairs, without much happening on the pitch for long periods of time.
That is why test match cricket has gradually fallen out of favour, particularly with younger audiences. While it retains its popularity in England and Australia, elsewhere games are often attended by spare crowds.
World Test Championship
To try and make test matches more meaningful, the ICC has now organised the World Test Championship (WTC), essentially a league system which operates over a two-year rolling cycle. The major test-playing nations play each other home and away, and teams are awarded points according to the number of matches that they win or draw.
At the end of the cycle, the two top-placed teams meet in a one-off final. The inaugural winners of the competition were New Zealand who beat India in the final in Southampton, England in 2021.
The next cycle is now more than halfway through, with Australia currently leading the way, followed by South Africa, Sri Lanka, and India. It has already been announced that the next two finals, in 2023 and 2025, will be staged at Lord’s in North-West London.
ODIs
Most cricket at a local level is played within a single day because amateurs do not have the time to devote longer to it. However, although it had been played in various forms in domestic leagues from the 1960s onwards, particularly in England, it was not until 1971 that the first ODI was played between Australia and New Zealand, almost as an afterthought, when the first three days of a test match were washed out.
Consisting of 50 overs a side, it soon proved popular with the crowds and sponsors, and soon every tour consisted of ODIs as well as test matches.
In 1975, the first ODI World Cup was organized in England, and one has been staged every four years since then. The current cup holders are England, who beat New Zealand in the final in 2019, after a Super Over (the equivalent of a penalty shoot-out in football).
India will be the hosts for the next tournament to be staged in 2023.
T20s
Twenty20 may be the most recent format of the game to be introduced, but it has quickly become the most popular, fuelled by the success of major franchise competitions like the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Younger audiences, who have busy working and family lives, do not have the time even to watch an ODI match. However, twenty overs a side game can take three hours or less, and, with action naturally compressed, it is inherently more exciting. It has also proved highly popular and lucrative for broadcasters and sponsors.
Just like with the ODIs, there is a World Cup, which is normally held every two years instead of four, although the Covid pandemic caused some disruption to the scheduling. As a result, the 2020 tournament, which was originally due to be staged in Australia, was pushed back a year and relocated to the Middle East instead.
A further consequence of this is that the 2022 version of the tournament, with Australia restored to hosting duties, will now begin next month.
The intention thereafter is to stage it on a biennial cycle, with the West Indies and the USA sharing hosting duties in 2024.
Other tournaments
There are, or have been, other international tournaments, with the Asia Cup the most recent to be played.
The Asia Cup
As the name suggests, the Cup is contested between Asian countries, and was originally intended to promote goodwill between them. It remains the only continental championship in cricket, and is usually contested between the major cricket nations of the Indian sub-continent – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, plus Afghanistan, and one or more qualifiers.
Although it began as an ODI tournament, it has since begun to alternate with the T20 format, which is what has been used this year, with Sri Lanka beating Pakistan in the final in Dubai.
The next tournament will be held in Pakistan in 2023.
The reason why this is the only intracontinental championship is partly geographical as there is a concentration of so many major cricket nations in Asia in a relatively limited area. Europe would really only have England playing the relatively inexperienced and resourced Netherlands and Ireland, while Australia and New Zealand are relatively cut-off, from the rest of the world.
The Champions Trophy
The Champion’s Trophy was an ODI competition which was staged between the major countries every four years beginning in 1988 in Bangladesh. With the introduction of the World Cups, it was thought to be surplus to requirements and was intended to be phased out in 2013, but, due to its popularity, was staged again in 2017.
No tournament was held in 2021 – again partly pandemic related – but it has already been announced that it will take place again in 2025, with Pakistan the hosts, with India the venue four years after that.
International cricket’s struggle for relevance
Whatever the form of cricket, international cricket is struggling for relevance in some instances because of the attraction for players and spectators alike to franchise cricket.
Most international stars are tied to their national cricket boards by central contracts, paying them a salary to play for their country, in exchange for them to arrive at the first call on their services.
The problem is that while the wealthier countries like India, Australia and England (often called the “Big Three”) can reward players relatively handsomely in this way, the same compensations are not on offer for some of the smaller nations. Many are finding it easier to forgo their international careers in exchange for what they can get playing franchise cricket, and with less travelling as well.
And the other problem is that cricket has become a 365-day-a-year sport, all-consuming. Players who could look forward to several months of rest at the end of a busy season, have just now a short period of recuperation before they are expected to go again, often in a different form of the game, sometimes in another corner of the globe.
As a consequence, some players have decided to stop playing international cricket altogether, while others have chosen to specialise in just one format of the game.
This trend will only accelerate as the international and domestic calendar becomes ever more crowded.