Twelve countries hold Test status, but only nine play in the World Test Championship. Zimbabwe, Ireland, and Afghanistan have been left out since the competition's inception, and the ICC is now reconsidering that arrangement. It is a correction that should have happened from day one.

The case for exclusion has never held up. Keeping these three nations out of the WTC while pointing to their relative weakness as justification is a circular argument: you cannot expect teams to develop competitive Test cricket if you deny them the environment that produces it. Full Test membership should mean inclusion in the championship built around Test cricket, with no exceptions.

If the ICC confirms all 12 nations will compete in a future WTC cycle, it does not deserve special credit for the decision. It is simply fixing a structural failure that ran for too long. For fans of Zimbabwe, Ireland, and Afghanistan, it is a meaningful step regardless of how overdue it is.

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Hosting the Women's T20 World Cup in England and calling it a step toward growing the game is a bit like selling biryani in Mumbai and announcing you've done a great job spreading biryani around the world. England is the home of cricket. The fans are already there. The infrastructure is already there. Nothing new is being built.

The ICC has a mandate to grow cricket globally, but its major event calendar keeps cycling through the same handful of countries: India, England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, Australia. Familiarity reduces friction, and friction is expensive, so the path of least resistance keeps looping back to the same destinations. The problem is that the mandate isn't to make event logistics easier. Choosing the easier option and choosing the growth option are two different things, and the ICC keeps picking the former.

Non-traditional markets don't develop themselves. They develop because the sport shows up, invests attention, and gives local audiences a reason to care. A major ICC event held somewhere cricket hasn't historically had a foothold does more for long-term growth than another tournament in a country where the sport is already woven into the culture. The next cycle of major events is a real opportunity to change that pattern.

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A video game company builds an entire product around a famous cricketer, using their face, physique, batting style, and signature celebrations. The game sells millions of copies. The cricketer never signs a contract, never gets a call, and never receives a rupee. That scenario is not hypothetical, and it sits at the center of what image rights actually mean for professional athletes.

Image rights law exists because athletes invest years building a public identity, and that identity has real commercial value. When a third party uses a player's likeness, celebrations, or style to sell products without permission, they are extracting value the athlete created. Protecting those rights is not about vanity; it is about ownership of what you built.

The same principle applies beyond video games, covering advertisements that use a player's likeness without consent, merchandise printed with their image, and AI-generated content that mimics their style. The person whose identity is being commercialized deserves both a say in how it is used and fair compensation when it generates profit.

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Seven parties filed objections to the ACE rescue package for USA Cricket's bankruptcy case, and the most consequential one came with a competing bid attached. The National Cricket League submitted its own offer directly challenging the trustee's claim that ACE was the only viable funder available, exposing a central weakness in the argument for skipping a competitive process entirely.

At stake in the judge's ruling are 50-year media rights and long-term governance control over American cricket's infrastructure, all being decided through a single court proceeding rather than any open market process. Former USA Cricket chairman Vinu Pesike, two board allies, and a former counsel-turned-creditor each filed separately, but their objections land on the same point: ACE and Willow locked in control before any alternatives were evaluated.

The court has three realistic paths forward. It can approve the ACE deal as presented, delay or deny it, or force a genuine competitive process between ACE and NCL. That third option would reopen negotiations, create real uncertainty about who ends up running American cricket's commercial and broadcast infrastructure, and potentially produce better terms for creditors. The ruling will determine whether that outcome gets decided through a process with any claim to fairness, or whether the trustee's preferred deal simply stands.

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$24,000 to grow the game!

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The ICC's constitution prohibits government interference in national cricket boards, but the enforcement mechanism is broken. Instead of acting on observable violations, the ICC waits for the affected board to formally complain. This creates an impossible situation: boards that have been dissolved or taken over by government appointees are in no position to report their own political capture. It's governance that protects itself from ever having to be enforced.

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka offer clear examples. Governments have dissolved their cricket boards and installed interim committees in plain sight, with widespread reporting and public acknowledgment. Yet the ICC board of directors, those with a fiduciary duty to world cricket, has remained completely silent. No statements, no acknowledgment, no action.

Selective governance isn't just bad policy. It sends a message to every government that interference carries no real consequences. Cricket boards in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere deserve the independence the ICC claims to protect. If the rules only apply when victims can self-report, they protect no one. The signal being sent is dangerous, and cricket is heading in the wrong direction.

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Losing teaches valuable lessons without cost

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