The ICC Future Tours Programs is a scheduling program of the International Cricket Council (ICC) that governs cricket professionally. It’s objective is to schedule future cricketing contests between two countries depending on their membership status with the International Cricket Council.
The ICC Future Tours Program has been in action since 2006. During these years, this program scheduled bilateral and triangular or tri-nation series between the full members of the International Cricket Council. These usually followed a home and away format. The scheduled that is released follows a 10-year cycle. This program also oversees that a mutual agreement has been reached between the two contesting nations over the venues. In case of a dispute, the International Cricket Council proposes and decides a neutral venue.
Within the Future Tours Program is the ICC Events Cycle that sees prominent championships slated to be held every four years. These include the 50-over World Cup, the Champions Trophy, and two T20 World Cups. Each of these events are scheduled for both men’s and women’s cricket. Moreover, tournaments like the World Test Championships, Cricket World Cup Super League, and Cricket World Cup Qualification are made up of multiple bilateral series. The Future Tours Program includes those in its schedule as well.
Two major changes that led to the rescheduling of these programs in the late 2010s. Firstly, in 2018, the International Cricket Council granted T20 International status to all its associate member. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 disrupted the schedule, thereby leading to a revision of the plans.
The current men’s Futures Tour Program is a part of the 2023-2027 cycle. It consists of over 770 matches played between 13 nations. The women’s Futures Tour Program on the other hand has 400 matches scheduled between 13 nations. Apart from the International Cricket Council, individual boards of test-playing nations too release the future tours program that gives the followers of that team their potential schedule.
