Is England’s absence from the showpiece in India a flickering sign that the international game is in better health than some fear?
Is sport considered primarily a business or a sport? Well, it is both, but sometimes one side of the equation is in the ascent. Right now, though, money talks louder than it ever did and this is a problem for international cricket.
International cricket has a challenge if it is to remain competitive. The resources available to the different cricket boards are vastly different.
In 2014, a big three in world cricket was created, with proposed changes to the way the global cricket governing body, the ICC, was run and how it distributed its income. Some of the proposals were rejected or watered down but, those reforms that were carried out, further separated India, Australia and England from the rest. The cricket boards of these three nations were already the richest three boards.
The worry is that this off-field advantage leads to an on-field one, and that international cricket tournaments will become less competitive, and thus less interesting. All of the big three made it to the semifinals of World Cup 2019.
