ZIMBABWE Cricket (ZC) is set to receive $10 million from the International Cricket Council (ICC) over a period of eight years as part of the Test Cricket Fund announced during last year’s takeover of cricket’s governing body by India, Australia and England.
BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
The Test Cricket Fund was introduced to help ensure all Test-playing teams, except the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board, to sustain a home programme of Test cricket through to 2023.
ZC, together with the other ICC full members, will receive $1,25 million annually, beginning in January 2016.
ZC board chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani told NewsDay Sport in an interview yesterday that The Test Cricket Fund would help them recover losses from home tours.
“It will obviously go a long way in ensuring that we play more Test cricket as a nation because at the moment it has been quite costly to host Tests,” he said.
“We are always striving to have our national team play as many matches as possible, including Test cricket, which is, of course, the pinnacle of the game, but some of the costs involved have been prohibitive. We, therefore, welcome the move by ICC as it will go a long way in helping grow the longer version of the game,” he said.
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Mukuhlani said the national cricket side is scheduled to play more Test cricket next year.
“As you will recall, the just-ended tour of Bangladesh was supposed to include Tests, but they have since been pushed forward to early next year. We are also going to host Sri Lanka, India and New Zealand next year in home series, which are expected to include Test matches and the Test Cricket Fund will go a long way in assisting us,” Mukuhlani said. According to ESPNcricinfo, ICC plans to make its first Test Cricket Fund payment of $600 000 in early January, before disbursing another $650 000 to the “small seven” member boards in July.
Payments are expected to follow this biannual pattern until 2023.
The ICC had originally announced that the Test Cricket Fund was aimed at “encouraging and supporting Test match cricket” outside the Big Three nations.
As boards have already entered bilateral touring agreements until 2023, there appears to be limited scope to enhance their Test schedules using the Test Cricket Fund payments. It appears more likely that the money will be used to underwrite loss-making tours.
For example, Sri Lanka Cricket loses money on Test tours featuring all nations except the Big Three and Pakistan.
The Test Cricket Fund would help them recover losses from home tours such as the recent visit by West Indies, which is estimated to have cost Sri Lanka Cricket about $648 000.
