BCCI Plans for Rest and Multinational Cricket in Upcoming FTP
The Board of Control for Cricket in India is preparing to push back against the game’s relentless calendar, with a clear message for the next Future Tours Programme cycle: India’s players need rest, and they need time to adjust to overseas conditions, especially in the SENA countries.
The timing is tight. The key conversations begin this month.
Dubai workshop sets the stage
On September 22 and 23, operations teams from boards around the world will gather in Dubai for an FTP workshop that will shape the international schedule from 2027 to 2031. BCCI’s FTP managers will be in the room, armed with a brief that is now public.
“The challenge we are facing is that there are too many matches in the year, and that is why, in the next FTP, we will do certain things and take certain measures,” BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia said on Thursday after a review meeting of the Indian team.
He spelt out the priority: “We have instructed our FTP people, who will be meeting very soon at various international forums, that our FTP should be scheduled in such a way that there is proper rest for the players, as well as some kind of acclimatisation or friendly matches before any major series in SENA countries.”
The message is blunt. India do not want to fly into England, Australia, South Africa or New Zealand, play a warm-up at best, and head straight into marquee series. They want windows – genuine ones – not just token gaps.
The Dubai workshop will not only feature Full Members. Representatives from the top eight Associate countries have also been invited, a sign that their schedules and opportunities will be part of the broader discussion.
A crowded 2027–31 map
The ambition is simple; the execution is anything but. The next FTP has to accommodate bilateral commitments, ICC events and World Test Championship obligations, all while creating breathing space.
India’s broad outline is already sketched in.
They are due to host England for five Tests at the start of 2028, then travel to Australia at the end of that year. The cycle flips after that: India are tentatively scheduled to tour England in 2029 and host Australia in 2031.
Threaded through those tours is a heavy run of ICC tournaments. The T20 World Cup lands in Australia and New Zealand in 2028. The Champions Trophy comes to India in 2029. The T20 World Cup returns in 2030, this time spread across England, Scotland and Ireland. Then the ODI World Cup in 2031, co-hosted by India and Bangladesh, looms as the grand finale of the cycle.
On top of that, World Test Championship commitments are likely to send India to South Africa and West Indies, while Sri Lanka and another side are expected to tour India. Every series matters. Every window is contested.
Finding space for rest and acclimatisation in that maze will test even the BCCI’s scheduling clout. The board, though, has rarely shied away from complex logistical puzzles. This one will demand all of that experience.
Multilateral cricket back in the frame
While the BCCI wrestles with player workload, another conversation is gathering momentum in the corridors of power: the future shape of international cricket itself.
Cricbuzz understands that the next international calendar could feature more multilateral tournaments. Across several boards, there is a growing belief that bilateral cricket, especially outside the highest-profile contests, is losing its appeal and, crucially, its financial punch. Multination events, by contrast, are viewed as stronger commercial products.
Tri-series and quadrangulars once dotted the calendar. Now they are almost museum pieces.
At present, a T20I tri-series is being played in Namibia, involving the hosts, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Since the 2019 World Cup, there has been only one ODI tri-series – New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan – staged as a lead-in to the 2025 Champions Trophy.
India’s own history with such events in the modern era is surprisingly thin. Since the 2011 World Cup, they have featured in just four multilateral tournaments of that kind.
There was the 2011-12 tri-series in Australia, with Sri Lanka as the third side. In 2013, India travelled to the West Indies for another ODI tri-series, again with Sri Lanka involved. Then came the 2014-15 tri-series in Australia, this time with England in the mix.
The most recent was the Nidahas Trophy in 2018, a T20I tri-series in Sri Lanka featuring Bangladesh and the hosts. That tournament still lives in the memory for Dinesh Karthik’s last-ball six in the final, a shot that sealed the title and instantly joined the highlights reel of India’s white-ball history.
The Asia Cup also offers multilateral cricket, but it sits in a different category, owned and operated by the Asian Cricket Council rather than any single board.
India’s multination dilemma
Multilateral tournaments typically belong to the host board, which controls the event and its commercial rights. For India, that model presents a unique calculation.
Matches not involving India rarely command the same value in the Indian market. That reality hits the bottom line. It also helps explain why the BCCI has not hosted a multilateral tournament since the TVS Cup in 2003-04, which featured Australia and New Zealand.
Any revival of that format on Indian soil will hinge on the economics. How do you price games without India? How are media rights carved up? Does a centralised ICC model emerge, or do boards cut bespoke deals?
Those questions sit just beneath the surface as administrators head to Dubai. On one side, a push for more rest and smarter preparation. On the other, a tilt towards multination events to keep fans and broadcasters engaged.
The calendar is bursting, the demands are rising, and the game’s powerbrokers now have to decide: what does the next era of international cricket really look like?
