Five national cricket boards are behind a plan to overhaul the existing system for selling broadcast rights to international cricket – a proposal that will be discussed at the International Cricket Council’s annual conference later this month, according to ESPNcricinfo.
The website said the proposal, currently at a conceptual stage, has been floated by the England and Wales Cricket Board, which is currently part of a committee working on it, along with Cricket South Africa, Cricket Australia, New Zealand Cricket and the Pakistan Cricket Board.
The change is said to be part of the wider plans to reform cricket’s international calendar. If implemented, it could see boards wrestle control from broadcasters over their rights and better monetise the content, as well as its promotion and visibility in untapped markets.
ESPNcricinfo said the proposal was first made at the ICC chief executives committee meeting in April. It added that it envisions that once the current cycle of television rights ends for respective full members of the ICC, each board will continue to sell rights for its home territory and benefit from the resulting profits.
However, each board will then place the rights to broadcast its home series in overseas markets in a common pool with other national boards. The rights in the common pool will be sold collectively as bundles by a committee of full members, with the resulting profits divided and distributed to the contributing boards.
The current system sees boards sell their broadcast rights to partners, who then hold the ability to sublicense these rights in overseas markets. ESPNcricinfo said the five boards on the committee are all in agreement on the proposal.