The ICC have released their Future Tours Programme
(Picture: Getty Images)A hectic schedule for England’s cricketers has been confirmed after the International Cricket Council finally published their men’s Future Tours Programme up to 2027.
It confirmed a peculiarly shaped summer for England next year. It opens with a Test against Ireland, which will be four days in length and likely at Trent Bridge, followed by a five-match Ashes series, which concludes at the end of July.
With the Hundred in August, England take a break, followed by a busy month of white-ball action in September. They face New Zealand in three ODIs and five T20s, as well as Ireland in three ODIs.
The World Test Championship final will also take place at Lord’s next summer, although England’s dreadful form at the start of the competition’s cycle means they will not be involved.
The shape of next summer’s men’s cricket below the international game remains unclear. The High Performance Review, led by Andrew Strauss, is hoping to present recommended structures to the counties next week, with a meeting this week delayed.
There is an unofficial deadline of the end of September to agree a long-term structure for the domestic game; if the counties agree before then, that new structure will come in for the summer of 2023. If they do not agree by the end of the season, 2023 could be a transition year that places teams into divisions for 2024, when the new structure would come in.
Currently, counties are in the peculiar position of playing the final weeks of the County Championship season not knowing whether they are playing for promotion and relegation.
As recently as last week Strauss’s panel had not reached a consensus over what to present to the county chiefs, but the hope is that one final meeting will iron those issues out. There is agreement across the game that the current schedule does not work.
The likelihood is that they will recommend a reduction in County Championship cricket, perhaps to as few as 10 matches. How divisions and conferences would be structured (options include 12-6, 11-7 and the unlikely 6-6-6) also remains unclear. Games overseas in March are said to be increasingly unlikely.
Further four-day cricket is likely to be played alongside the Hundred, possibly moving a 50-over competition to the start of the summer, which would allow bowlers to up their workload as the season begins.
Whether the counties would agree to what Strauss and his review present is another matter. Twelve of the 18 voting for a structure is required for it to proceed.
