In bilateral cricket, Zimbabwe will make history when they travel to England for a single Test match and collect the first-ever “touring fee” from the hosts.
Zimbabwe will make cricket history when they visit England for a single Test match in the summer of 2025 and become the first team in modern times to earn a “touring fee” from the hosts in bilateral cricket. According to news reports, Richard Gould, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), confirmed this news on Sky Sports. In the Final World Podcast of the previous year, it was stated that all of the sport’s full member nations needed to work together to end the income gap and provide players and fans with high-quality Test cricket. One recommendation he had made was this touring charge.
On Sky Sports, Gould stated to former England captain Mike Atherton, “There is a huge responsibility,” on the need to guarantee competition in Test matches between major cricketing teams such as Australia, England, India, and New Zealand.
“When you look at whether it is the revenue share from the ICC or indeed the revenue share from bilateral cricket, which is fairly old fashioned in truth in the way that it is delivered.”
For instance, Zimbabwe is coming to tour [England] next year. Typically, the way things work is that the touring squad enters the nation and is then taken care of for lodging and other necessities. However, there is no charge for the touring team. “There will be a fee for that touring team when we play Zimbabwe next year,” he said in closing.
Test cricket has come under scrutiny because of the exorbitant and rising expenses associated with visiting and organizing the match in smaller nations, where the broadcasting rights have become insignificant owing to low viewership.
This had promoted Cricket West Indies (CWI) CEO to say that the revenue sharing model of ICC was broken, earlier this year after the two-match Test series against Australia, which made headlines as a seven-wicket haul by Shamar Joseph helped WI secure a rare Test win at the Gabba.
“CWI has spent over 2 million dollars sending teams to Australia in the last four months and whilst CA have received all the economic benefits from those series, we have seen zero dollars back,” Grave told ESPNcricinfo in January.
“Is that really fair, reasonable and sustainable?,” he had questioned.Gould expressed his sympathies for the financially struggling boards, such as CWI, and expressed optimism about finding a means to keep them viable. Notably, the Caribbean Islands are currently engaged in a three-match series in the United Kingdom with England.
Before they arrived, I had discussions with the West Indies about what kind of support we could offer six or nine months prior. It would not only be on the Test match calendar, which makes it intriguing. For instance, we played two more Twenty20 matches in the West Indies before Christmas [in 2023] to support them.
