Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar has called on an end to self-interest in world cricket so the calendar can be fixed

With the international cricket calendar increasingly being squeezed by three formats, and multiple T20 leagues adding to the chaos, an Indian legend believes it’s time for administrators to act.

Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar has called on cricket administrators to put aside self-interest in a bid to improve cricket’s dog’s breakfast of a calendar.

While it has broadly been an engrossing and highly-competitive year of Test cricket, setting the scene for a five-way race for spots at next year’s World Test Championship final, there remain significant doubts about the viability of the format in more than a handful of nations.

South Africa sent a weakened team to New Zealand earlier this year after prioritising its SA20 franchise league over the game’s longest format. The move could potentially prove the difference between qualifying for or missing the WTC decider at Lord’s.

Gavaskar has called on administrators to put self-interest aside in bid to improve cricket’s calendar. Picture: Izhar Khan/Getty Images

The West Indies have also been afflicted by players choosing to play on the white-ball circuit rather than Test cricket, while teams including Australia have routinely fielded understrength sides in bilateral white-ball international series, including earlier this month when the Aussies rested their Test regulars from matches against Pakistan.

Cricket’s global player union the World Cricketers Association has undertaken a full-scale review into schedule which is set to be released in the coming months.

However the WCA has limited agency in forcing change, with tension lying between the ICC – who put on global events – its constituent member boards, who schedule bilateral series, and organisers of franchise leagues, many of whom are privately-backed.

West Indies are one of the Test playing nations who suffer due to the calendar, despite heroics such as this at the Gabba’ in early 2024. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

Gavaskar, in Australia for media commitments during the Australia-India Test series including with Channel Seven, told this masthead that he still believed all three international formats could survive but that something would need to give.

“I would like to see is an alignment of all the three formats in a way where each format gets a window, say, a T20 window, a one -day window,” Gavaskar said.

“One-day (cricket) … you might not have, apart from the World Cups or the Asia Cups. But Test matches will stay, because even the players recognise that for them to be remembered, it is their Test match performances by which they’ll be, referred to as great or whatever.”

Sunil Gavaskar and Allan Border with the trophy named in their honour before the first Test of the Australia-India Test series. Picture: Paul Kane – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images

With BCCI secretary Jay Shah about to take over as chair of the ICC, Gavaskar was optimistic that a more workable calendar could be formulated but acknowledged that it would take sacrifice and the eschewing of greed from administrators.

“All the boards, if they look at the interest of world cricket, and not just their individual interests, will certainly be able to find a way, because there are some very good administrators around who have the interest of the game at heart, but can sometimes be restricted by the fact that they need to look after their board’s interests,” Gavaskar said.

“But if they all get together and they’re capable of doing that, then I think you’ll certainly be able to get a calendar where everybody’s happy.”

The most pressing issue from an ICC perspective is a final call on where next year’s Champions Trophy – long scheduled for Pakistan, will remain solely in that nation or move to a hybrid model. India is unwilling to play in Pakistan and Pakistan is not budging on the entire event being held in the country, with a decision to be made before November is out.

Whether Pakistan hosts the entire Champions Trophy, or a hybrid model is adopted, remains to be seen. Picture: Izhar Khan/Getty Images

“That is going to be a tough call,” Gavaskar said.

“It’s more the government of India. I think while the Sports Ministry of India gave permission to the to the visually impaired team to go to Pakistan, the Home Ministry and the I think maybe the government of India said no.

“So I think it’s a call at the highest level. And frankly while there are intrusions going on in India, and there are deaths of army people and civilians, I can’t see that happening.”

Originally published as Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar has called on an end to self-interest in world cricket so the calendar can be fixed