The draft has revealed that India would host neither Bangladesh nor Zimbabwe in these years and also showed that ICC has kept an official and an unofficial window for the Champions League and IPL, respectively. These windows have been kept just to ease the amount of burden on international players. Unfortunately, England side do have national assignments during the IPL thus their participation in this league would be difficult again.
The FTP divisions in Test cricket are clear: England will play 99 matches over the next eight years, Australia 92, and India 90. Sri Lanka and South Africa are at the next level, with 76 and 74 Tests scheduled. They are followed by West Indies and New Zealand, with 66 Tests each, and Pakistan with 65. Bangladesh and Zimbabwe bring up the rear with 42 and 41 matches. These are draft options, though, and the final numbers could be different.
India will play five tests in their two tours of England while there will be two Ashes series in the year 2013 to avoid clash with the World Cup in 2015 . However, there are no other tours except these with a five-test series.
The one-day internationals are more evenly distributed. India will play the most with 166, 89 of which are away games. Zimbabwe have the fewest, 64, of which 37 are at home. All other countries will play between 100 and 160 games. The Twenty20 format has the fewest games, with most teams scheduled to play between 30 and 55 matches over the eight-year programme. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, however, have just 11 each.
Well the draft has revealed a possibility of a Pak-Indo series in March-April 2013 in India though there has been no confirmation about it. Other than this, England are also not scheduled to host Bangladesh for Tests in the programme and their only series against Zimbabwe - in February-March 2017 - has no venue specified, though given the time of year it is unlikely to be in England.
Arun Rawlani.
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