The International Cricket Council wrapped its final Board and Committee meetings of 2026 in Bali, hashing out plans to overhaul cricket’s entire master calendar as the current cycle winds down. This wasn’t some minor tweak, either. This governing body meeting, the first ever in Indonesia, was all about reshaping the matches fans watch, with debates raging over One Day Internationals, World Test Championship expansion, and even windows for those huge T20 franchise leagues.
So, What Exactly Is the FTP, Anyway?
Every serious cricket fan has heard the term “FTP” floating around, but let’s be real, how many could actually explain what the Future Tours Programme does? It’s the official, multi-year master calendar issued by the ICC. Think of it as the sport’s grand blueprint, mapping out every bilateral international tour across Tests, ODIs, and T20Is. This massive schedule also slots in the ICC’s own global tournaments, all organized within a fixed cycle that usually runs for four to five years. Its main goal is to bring certainty, fairness, and commercial stability to the boards that run international cricket. Knowing who you’ll host and who you’ll visit well in advance is huge for broadcasters, sponsors, venues, and, most importantly, the players trying to plan their careers. The calendar also carves out protected windows for massive ICC events, like World Cups, the Champions Trophy, and the World Test Championship final. Plus, it makes room for those monster domestic T20 leagues, like the IPL.
Behind the Scenes: How Cricket’s Schedule Gets Built (or Blown Up)
Here’s where it gets interesting: the ICC lays down the broad framework, but individual series aren’t just handed down from on high. Nope, member boards actually negotiate those directly with each other! Once they agree on tours, it all gets signed off through formal Members’ Participation Agreements. That means a board can’t just bail on a scheduled series without facing some serious financial or legal heat. And get this: there isn’t one single program for everyone. There are separate calendars for different groups of teams. The Men’s FTP covers the 12 Full Members, while the Women’s FTP includes 11 nations for its 2025,2029 cycle, running alongside the ICC Women’s Championship. Then you’ve got the Associate Men’s FTP for the eight nations in the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2. The current men’s cycle, which is wrapping up now, started in 2023 and runs through March 2027. It packed in an insane 694 international matches shared among those 12 Full Members, folding in both the 2023-2025 and 2025-2027 editions of the World Test Championship. In each WTC cycle, the nine leading Test nations play six series.
The present cycle is drawing to a close in March 2027, and the final plan for 2027 to 2031 was expected to be presented at these very November meetings. This isn’t just shuffling some dates around. This program has been overhauled several times since 2006, literally reshaping how bilateral cricket works. What’s next for the sport’s master schedule, and how will these debates in Bali impact the future of every team and tournament we follow? We’re all waiting to see what the new plan for 2027-2031 will bring.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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