Indian Premier League founder, Lalit Modi, believes that the BCCI should consider running the T20 tournament in an expanded slot. But what will happen to international cricket then?
The dust has yet to settle on an exhilarating Test series between South Africa and Australia. Exhibiting the intense rivalries, standout performances, and the ebbs and flows of the long format, as well as the come-from-behind victory of the World Test Champions, it was a series that will no doubt be talked about for many years - and for the right reasons, unlike the 2018 ‘Sandpaper-gate’ edition.
But a fresh storm is brewing. Just as Test cricket was enjoying an increasingly rare moment in the sun, Indian Premier League (IPL) founder Lalit Modi set the cat among the pigeons with his forthright and blunt proposal that the BCCI and IPL should consider a new and expanded calendar slot for the Indian tournament.
The IPL currently runs from mid-March to the end of May – approximately ten weeks to stage 74 games. Modi is touting a January start as the preferable window, with an October to April schedule also proposed. A related proposal, which the BCCI has now distanced itself from, seeks to expand the league from 10 to 12 teams, which would also require an expanded calendar window.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) meets this week in Bali and is expected to announce the Future Tours Programmes (FTP) for 2027-2029 and 2029-2031. The FTP outlines the schedule of bilateral cricket and ICC tournaments, including the two-year cycle for the World Test Championship (WTC), as well as the host venues for ICC tournaments.
It also meets at a time when the global game faces a financial crisis, with broadcast revenues for ICC events, bilateral tours and domestic leagues expected to reduce substantially in the next round of deals.
The timing of Modi’s salvo is an unequivocal “middle-finger” to the game’s global governing body. Writing on X, Modi says, “The IPL does not need a window. It creates its own… The ICC … should recognise the economic reality and work constructively around it. The IPL cannot be expected to subsidise an outdated global calendar indefinitely”. Modi has thrown down the gauntlet, thereby enabling cricket to answer a fundamental question: who actually runs world cricket? Is it the ICC or the IPL?
The IPL already takes up almost 20 per cent of the annual cricket calendar, constraining the time available for bilateral cricket, especially for those nine Test-playing countries who currently compete in the WTC. Any shrinkage of the bilateral calendar during the southern hemisphere summer months would disproportionately hurt South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Currently, these countries do not play any bilateral cricket during the IPL window, as so many of their national players participate in the IPL.
A further problem with Modi’s ambitious plan is that it would lead to the ultimate destruction of domestic cricket in these countries. How would a domestic cricket structure survive if its best players are excluded? The commercial viability, such that it is at the moment, would disappear alongside spectator interest.
This extends to the viability of domestic T20 leagues such as the Big Bash in Australia and the SA20 in South Africa. New Zealand are at an advanced stage of introducing a similar league. Were the IPL window to creep into January, what becomes of the SA20, regarded as the second-best T20 league behind the IPL? Each of the six teams in the SA20 are also owned by IPL franchisees. Without the world’s best players, the SA20 is not commercially sustainable.
Modi would likely say, “well, move the SA20 so it does not clash”. To when – December? That would eliminate any prospect of bilateral cricket during the height of the South African summer and the holiday season.
In the longer term, if domestic cricket in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand were to produce fewer world-class players due to the collapse of their domestic structures, where would the IPL get their best overseas players from? In 2026, forty-five of the eighty overseas players in the IPL were from these three countries.
While the world’s top players may stand to benefit financially from an enhanced IPL, what about the domestic cricketers who keep the game alive across the globe? Another critical consideration must be player welfare, burnout and injuries. What does a player organisation like the World Cricketers’ Association have to say about this?
These implications do not concern Modi and his ilk – their only concern is to make a quick buck. They do not care for the game, and must not be allowed to ruin it. The ICC must step up and assert its role as the global governing body, and shed its image as a glorified events management entity for T20 and 50-over World Cups.
It has singularly failed to do so in recent times as the unregulated expansion of domestic T20 and even T10 leagues clutter the global cricket calendar. The ICC must begin to take seriously its governance mandate and oversight of the cricket calendar. Modi uses the English Premier League as an (inappropriate) comparator when flexing the IPL’s muscles but ignores the fact that FIFA controls the international football calendar.
Current debates have centred around the future of One Day International Cricket (the 50-over game), and even that of the holy grail, Test cricket itself. Modi and his fellow travellers see these formats as an anachronism in the era of the fast-paced and gimmicky T20 games. That is akin to wanting to replace healthy (gourmet) eating with an obese and coronary-inducing diet of fast food.
Recent Test matches have resurrected the oldest and best format of the game among players and fans. The ICC should now be seeking ways to strengthen this format, introducing more three-match series and expanding the number of countries in the WTC. In particular, the ICC must now clearly define the boundaries of franchise cricket leagues, including setting windows for southern and northern hemispheres so that bilateral, and especially Test cricket, can co-exist in a sustainable cricket ecosystem.
So this week the ICC must face up to a fundamental choice: is it willing to exercise its power or will it allow the IPL to run a coach and horses through its authority as the governing body of the global game? The IPL is a cash cow for the BCCI, not for the ICC; it does not subsidise the ICC and should not be allowed to dictate terms to it. To do so would be to allow a private product to eclipse a public good.
Test cricket will commemorate 150 years in 2027. We need to preserve its place in the modern game, together with its ethos for the next 150 years. Now is the time to take a stand.
Lawson Naidoo is a former Chair of the Board of Cricket South Africa and a Director of the International Cricket Council. He writes as a cricket-lover.
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