Todd Greenberg, Cricket Australia chief executive, has highlighted a fundamental tension in modern cricket administration, the need to inject greater meaning into bilateral one-day internationals while simultaneously protecting the broadcast revenues that depend on them.
Greenberg revealed that ICC CEO Sanjog Gupta had made similar comments earlier during a recent visit to Melbourne, when he addressed a Cricket Australia staff meeting.
"I think the principle of his comments are that the games that are played need to matter and have context and jeopardy. We fundamentally believe that. But we're also realists to know that bilateral ODIs make up a significant portion of our broadcast agreements, so we've got to find a way if we're going to create more jeopardy and meaning, and we're going to move them, what are we replacing them with, and how do you replace the revenues that go with those?," said Greenberg as quoted by Cricinfo.
"So there's a fine balance here. Some of that's short term, some of it long term. But the principle of what he's saying is right. Creating jeopardy and meaning into the games we play is important. But it's not an easy solve," he added.
Beyond the bilateral ODI question, Greenberg has backed Australia coach Andrew McDonald's call for larger squad sizes at the ODI World Cup in 2027. Greenberg also stated that CA agreed with the principle of reducing the number of teams in the ODI World Cup while expanding the T20 World Cup to include more Associate nations.
"We've advocated strongly. Andrew's made it pretty clear to me that's a position he wants to carry. So we've passed that feedback on to the ICC. So we've got some conversations scheduled with them, and I think there's a number of countries have said similar, given the change to it, that those squad sizes are important. So that's an issue on their table," said Greenberg.
"I don't know a lot of the background other than that was presented at the ICC conference. I assume it's just about trying to extract commercial value for those World Cups. And I saw some recent comments that some of the Associates are unhappy. I get that. Hopefully, there's a pathway for more Associates to look at the T20 World Cup as opposed to the ODI World Cup, so I think that's what the ICC is planning will be. That's how it was presented to us. We would support that strategy," he concluded.