Former Australian Women’s cricketer and currently the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association (FICA) President, Lisa Sthalekar, has raised concerns regarding the densely packed schedule in the men’s international cricket calendar.
Amid the growing dominance of franchise cricket, which occupies a substantial portion of the cricket calendar annually, Sthalekar highlighted the potential for reaching a critical threshold if a timely resolution is not sought.
The former Aussie cricketer mentioned that discussions have taken place among the International Cricket Council (ICC), cricket boards, and the FICA regarding the red-hot topic.
“The game is changing at a rapid rate. These conversations have been happening for a while behind closed doors [between the ICC, the cricket boards and FICA]. We are getting to a point where things may break. I know that the ICC is speaking to the national boards. We are speaking to the ICC as well. We have to wait and see how that happens,” said Sthalekar
Sthalekar acknowledged the growth and advantages of T20 cricket but also urged the ICC and cricket boards to collaborate on finding a solution to the challenges posed by the congested schedule.
“We all see the benefit of T20 cricket. We understand players have a small window to maximise their earnings. A lot of our players are enjoying playing bilateral cricket, ICC events and the T20 leagues. We understand that the men’s calendar is getting quite big. We are urging the ICC and national boards to come together because it is not a solution that can be solved straight away. Certainly, the players would like to play a role in that, to see if there’s a way forward for everyone to have their cake and eat it as well,” she added.
Sthalekar further reckoned that Women’s Cricket need to take a lesson from men’s calendar and try not to expand too many T20 tournaments, which could turn things ugly in the future.
“Ideally we would like to see the women’s calendar fit in T20 leagues, bilaterals and ICC events so that players don’t have to choose one or the other. We can learn some lessons from the men’s calendar. We have to nip things in the bud before it gets too big,” Sthalekar observed.
