Zimbabwe will become the first country in the modern era to be paid a "touring fee" by the host board in bilateral cricket when they travel to England in the 2025 summer for a one-off Test. That development was confirmed by ECB chief executive Richard Gould on Friday during a chat on Sky Sports during the first day's play of the Edgbaston Test.
It was Gould who, speaking to the Final World podcast last year, originally put forth the suggestion that to offset the disparity in revenues earned by various Full Member countries, and ensure the quality of Test cricket remained strong, a collective push was needed. Since then, one solution Gould has recommended and reiterated, including twice this week, is for the host board to pay a fee to travelling teams.
"There's a huge responsibility," Gould told former England captain Mike Atherton on Sky Sports about need for the ECB and other financially strong boards like the BCCI and Cricket Auustralia to ensure Test cricket is competitive. "When you look at whether it's 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's delivered.
"For example, next year Zimbabwe are coming to tour [England]. Normally the way the things happen is that it's the touring team gets itself into the country and then it's looked after in terms of accommodation, all the rest of it. But there's no fee for that team that's touring. Next year when we play against Zimbabwe, there will be a fee for that team that's touring."
The escalating costs of keeping Test cricket healthy in smaller countries, where the value of broadcasting rights has turned negligible especially for the longest format, had prompted CWI CEO Johnny Grave to say the ICC's revenue-share model was completely broken. Grave was responding to criticism of West Indies sending a second-string Test squad for the two-match Test series in Australia which grabbed headlines after Shamar Joseph levelled the series with a miracle spell of fast bowling on an injured toe 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've seen zero dollars back," Grave had told ESPNcricinfo in January. "Is that really fair, reasonable and sustainable?"
Gould said weaker boards like CWI had his "sympathy", but remained optimistic of finding ways to keep them strong. "I had conversations with the West Indies six, nine months back before they arrived, [about] what assistance we can we provide. And it's interesting because it won't just be on the Test match cycle. For example, we played an extra two T20s before Christmas in the West Indies [in 2023] in order to help them.
"The specific request that came from the West Indies in this for this particular tour is: can you help us with an Under-19 tour at some point so that we can get more of our players getting access red-ball cricket in those [England] conditions? So, it's not always about the money. It's, and, and there are different ways of doing it."
Recently speaking at the MCC World Cricket Connects symposium, ECB chair Richard Thompson is believed to have addressed the gathering in the Long Room saying only 4% of the board's annual income came from ICC revenue distribution, with the majority coming from the broadcast rights for bilateral cricket. Consequently it was important for the ECB to ensure the level of cricket for players in both men's and women's formats was strong - and the the opposition competitive. Hence the ECB has to contribute to keeping Test cricket's pyramid strong.
"We need to have really strong competitive cricket both for our men's teams and our women's teams across all formats. And therefore, there is a responsibility to ensure that we can share out the value that the game creates in order to keep that going. And that's recognised by everybody. It's just how you do it. There are different tactics in play but it is an accepted principle."