There has been a lot of discussion about the future and importance of ODI cricket in the month of July. Questions about the future of the 50-over format have been raised by South Africa's decision to forego their three One-Day Internationals against Australia in January 2023 in favour of their new T20 league and by England all-rounder Ben Stokes' early ODI retirement due to a "unsustainable" schedule.
However, ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice expressed optimism on Wednesday about the future of ODI cricket in the upcoming 2023–27 Future Tours Programme (FTP), which will be released in a few days. Allardice stated that there are no significant changes to the number or proportion of 50-over matches in the four-year cycle.
"The three formats are included in the FTP for a variety of reasons, including the fact that each country and its citizens have slightly varied format preferences. I believe that there is currently significant controversy regarding the variety of forms included in the calendar, rather than ODIs specifically."
"However, nations continue to schedule a sizable amount of ODIs in their FTPs. As a result, I don't think the number of ODIs or the percentage of ODIs planned will alter significantly in the FTP "Allardice spoke from Birmingham in a virtual conversation.
The proliferation of franchise T20 leagues would put pressure on the international cricket schedule, ICC Chairman Greg Barclay acknowledged. "The fact is that there are only 365 days in a year, which is a finite amount of time. Through ICC tournaments, bilateral matches, and of course the expansion of T20 local leagues, there is more cricket being played. So the calendar is under a lot of pressure, but I'm not sure if it's at a breaking point."
In response to Barclay's comments, Allardice reiterated that international cricket boards had adhered to the global timetable admirably, despite some of them giving their domestic T20 tournaments priority.
"Some team members are focusing on the domestic T20 leagues. However, in recent days, members' dedication to international and bilateral international cricket has never been greater."
"However, each of them must strike a balance between their home contests, their travel plans, and the supervision of their players. These boards are all in quite different situations. Therefore, there isn't a universal solution to the problem of balancing, and every nation approaches it differently."
India's captain Rohit Sharma supported the resumption of triangular and quadrangular series for regulating the international cricket schedule after the second One-Day International against England at Lord's. Tri-series weren't an option, and Allardice wasn't sure if there was room in the calendar for them.
"Under the agreements with members around the ICC tournaments, members are not permitted to plan quadrangulars. However, tri-series are, and all I know at this point is that, given the limitations of the calendar, they are difficult to organise in terms of getting countries to one spot, at one time. But I am aware that scheduling them is more difficult now than it was in the past.