ICC chair Greg Barclay flags major review of 'unsustainable' cricket schedule

Greg Barclay, the new ICC chairman, has declared the "unsustainable" global cricket calendar needs to be fundamentally examined and effectively rejected the suite of global events put to market by the governing body's chief executive Manu Sawhney earlier this year.

In a strong initial statement of intent, Barclay told ESPNcricinfo that the proposed return of a Champions Trophy style event in addition to men's and women's ODI and T20I World Cups was not on his agenda, and also indicated that cricket had to consider awarding major events to nations such as the USA in order to grow the game beyond its established base.

After winning a run-off with the incumbent Imran Khwaja over two rounds of voting, Barclay also said he would quit as chairman of the International Rugby League in order to concentrate on the many governance, strategy and cricket development issues piling up for the ICC in the time of coronavirus.

"We haven't really built the calendar of events. There's a lot of conjecture around whether it should be eight events, seven events, six events or whatever. I honestly don't have a preference," Barclay said. "What I want to ensure is that whatever we do end up with gives us optimum cricketing outcomes. I know a lot of the emphasis has appeared to be on commercial outcomes and this view that eight events will give the ICC more money.

"I don't think we've put enough thought into cricket and cricketing outcomes, particularly from the players' point of view. The players can't play all this cricket, just from a health, safety and welfare point of view, it's just not sustainable. So we've got to work around that so we've got our best athletes in positions where they're able to give their best for their countries in world events, and also make a living out of the game.

"So there is a heck of a lot to balance, and we've got to be really careful as to how we construct our annual calendar, so all these issues are taken into account. So it's not just a case of building a world events program and saying 'hey there it is, everything needs to fit', we need to get it all together into a dynamic model so that we get optimum cricketing outcomes."

Coming from New Zealand, Barclay suggested he would offer empathetic leadership while also striving for strategic cohesion after some years of dysfunction at the ICC. "The first thing we need to do is get the ICC strategy very clear, so we understand what it is we're trying to achieve, how that helps global cricket, how it supports members' interests," he said. "We're through a strategic planning exercise, but it's been two or three years and we need to get that closed out so it is quite clear what we're doing. Then we can make some decisions based on our strategy.

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"That can be as simple as if we have more money, do we want to invest more to grow the game, and if we do that what does it look like. Are we looking to grow cricket in the USA, what does that look like. That might mean we need to accept some of our world events need to be hosted in places like that, where it can be showcased and used as a platform to grow the game. But that will mean the revenue generated off that might be less than what the members ideally would want. So a lot of decisions, but it needs to be driven by a strategic approach."

The possibility of wresting global events away from India, England and Australia, the most concrete remaining legacy of the "big three" governance resolutions in 2014, would be a major change in direction.

"A major reason for doing that is if we want to grow the game, whether it's in Asia or the Americas, but the USA being the logical place to start," Barclay said. "Maybe we need to look at hosting a world event, maybe a co-host between the West Indies and the USA. but we do need to have a good look at the outcomes we're trying to drive here. Those world events are an integral part of decision making.

"The second thing is while from a revenue point of view we nee