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England Great Slams India, England And Australia, Calls Them Greedy For Money
Follow UsWorld Test Championship and its stunted growth has been a bone of contention between smaller nations and the Big Three due to funding
Cricket Australia's newly appointed CEO, Todd Greenberg, made a recent comment that not all nations must play Test cricket. It hasn't gone down well with former cricketers.
After former Australia pacer Mitchell Johnson slammed him, saying that instead of building a base, the fact that Greenberg was taking the ladder up from the smaller nations was not great, England's former captain Michael Vaughan and great commentator Geoffrey Boycott also joined the chorus.
“I don’t think everyone in world cricket needs to aspire to play Test cricket, and that might be OK. We’re literally trying to send countries bankrupt if we force them to try to play Test cricket. Scarcity in Test cricket is our friend, not our foe,” were Greenberg’s comments as quoted by the Indian Express.
Vaughan, while quoting Greenberg, wrote on X, “How about spread [ing] the wealth of the game around, so this doesn’t happen ?”
Boycott went one step further and brought India and England into the conversation as well. He quote-tweeted Vaughan, saying, “Absolutely spot on Michael. Australia, India and England are greedy. They don’t want to give any away.”
India, England, and Australia are colloquially referred to as the ‘Big Three’ in cricket for their financial stature. They are also a major contributor to the International Cricket Council (ICC)’s funds.
The ICC, after suggestions from various former and current cricketers, has formed a committee, headed by former New Zealand cricketer Roger Twose, to try and find ways of improving the World Test Championship (WTC) before the 2027-29 edition. Amongst the points of discussion would be the two-tier promotion and relegation from the championship.
This two-tier system is seen as the ultimate way of bringing smaller Test-playing nations such as Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Ireland to the main fold and attracting other potential Test nations. However, that would require a lot of monetary assistance from ICC's end. But the concern remains whether the Big Three would be willing to let go of their share of revenue for non-earning smaller nations?