Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg has endorsed the ICC's drive to inject greater context and competitive stakes into bilateral ODI cricket, while cautioning that scrapping the format from the Future Tours Programme altogether could deal a severe financial blow to member boards. Greenberg made the remarks in Darwin on Thursday, 15 August, on the sidelines of Australia's first Test against Bangladesh.

Greenberg's Core Position

The CA chief said he agreed with the underlying principle articulated by ICC CEO Sanjog Gupta, who had made similar observations during a recent visit to Melbourne. 'I think the principle of his comments are that the games that are played need to matter and have context and jeopardy,' Greenberg said. 'We fundamentally believe that.'

However, Greenberg was candid about the commercial constraints. 'Bilateral ODIs make up a significant portion of our broadcast agreements, so we've got to find a way if we're going to create more jeopardy and meaning, and we're going to move them, what are we replacing them with, and how do you replace the revenues that go with those?' he said. 'Creating jeopardy and meaning into the games we play is important. But it's not an easy solve.'

The ICC's Push to Reform ODI Cricket

Earlier, Sanjog Gupta had stated that the era of 'randomly scheduled' bilateral series must end, arguing that the long-term future of ODI cricket is closely tied to meaningful competition and the World Cup cycle. Greenberg sits on the ICC working group tasked with finalising the Future Tours Programme for the 2028–31 cycle, with the group also examining what a more expansive 2032–35 schedule might look like. This positions him as a central voice in decisions that will shape international cricket's commercial and competitive architecture for the next decade.

Expanded World Cup and Squad Size Concerns

Greenberg also threw his weight behind Australia head coach Andrew McDonald, who has publicly called for larger squad sizes ahead of the expanded ODI World Cup later this year. With the tournament's broadened format placing greater physical demands on players, Greenberg confirmed that Cricket Australia had already raised the issue with the ICC.

'We've advocated strongly,' he said. 'Andrew's made it pretty clear to me that's a position he wants to carry. So we've passed that feedback on to the ICC. There are a number of countries that have said similar, given the change to it, that those squad sizes are important.'

Associates Left Out — and Greenberg's Response

Cricket Australia did not push as forcefully for greater Associate nation inclusion at the ODI World Cup, despite criticism from Scotland and the Netherlands over the revised format. Greenberg acknowledged the frustration but framed the ICC's decision as commercially driven.

'I assume it's just about trying to extract commercial value for those World Cups,' he said. 'I saw some recent comments that some of the Associates are unhappy. I get that. Hopefully, there's a pathway for more Associates to look at the T20 World Cup as opposed to the ODI World Cup — so I think that's what the ICC is planning.' He added that Cricket Australia would support that strategy.

What This Means for the Future of ODIs

Greenberg's remarks crystallise the tension at the heart of the ongoing ODI cricket debate: boards want more meaningful fixtures, but they are reluctant to surrender the broadcast income that bilateral series generate. Notably, this is not the first time the format has faced an existential reckoning — similar debates surfaced after the rise of T20 leagues in the 2010s, yet bilateral ODIs endured largely due to their broadcast value. Whether the ICC working group can engineer a model that satisfies both competitive integrity and commercial imperatives will be the defining question for cricket's next programming cycle.