Zimbabwe set to become first team to receive touring fee

Zimbabwe will become the first team to receive a touring fee when they tour England for a one-off Test in the 2025 summer, as confirmed by ECB chief executive Richard Gould during a chat with Sky Sports on July 26 (Friday) during the ongoing Edgbaston Test between England and West Indies.

Gould had hinted at such a move in June last year where he felt there was a need to address the revenue disparity between some of the full-members and the smaller Test nations. He believes that there is a need for the ECB and other financially strong boards like the BCCI and Cricket Australia to ensure Test cricket is competitive.

"There's a huge responsibility," Gould said.  "When you look at whether it's the revenue share from the ICC or indeed the revenue share from bilateral cricket, which is fairly old fashioned in truth in the way that it's delivered.

"For example, next year Zimbabwe are coming to tour [England]. Normally the way the things happen is that it's the touring team gets itself into the country and then it's looked after in terms of accommodation, all the rest of it. But there's no fee for that team that's touring. Next year when we play against Zimbabwe, there will be a fee for that team that's touring."

There have been plenty of chatter about how the ICC revenue-share model is unfair. Cricket West Indies (CWI)had addressed this issue when he was criricised for not sending a full-strength side for the tour of Australia. Despite that, West Indies ended the tour with head held high as they managed to level the series 1-1 following a 7-for by pacer Shamar Joseph at the Gabba.

"CWI has spent over 2 million dollars sending teams to Australia in the last four months and whilst CA have received all the economic benefits from those series, we've seen zero dollars back," Grave had told ESPNcricinfo in January. 

"Is that really fair, reasonable and sustainable?"

Responding to the statement, Gould said, "I had conversations with the West Indies six, nine months back before they arrived, [about] what assistance we can we provide. And it's interesting because it won't just be on the Test match cycle. For example, we played an extra two T20s before Christmas in the West Indies [in 2023] in order to help them.

"The specific request that came from the West Indies for this particular tour is: can you help us with an Under-19 tour at some point so that we can get more of our players getting access red-ball cricket in those [England] conditions? So, it's not always about the money. It's, and, and there are different ways of doing it."

ECB chair Richard Thompson recently revealed that only 4% of the board's annual income came from ICC's revenue distribution, with the majority coming from broadcasting rights, which smaller nations like Zimbabwe or Ireland cannot boast about.

"We need to have really strong competitive cricket both for our men's teams and our women's teams across all formats. And therefore, there is a responsibility to ensure that we can share out the value that the game creates in order to keep that going. And that's recognised by everybody. It's just how you do it. There are different tactics in play but it is an accepted principle," he said.

Zimbabwe's last Test tour of England was back in 2003 when a certain James Anderson made his debut. 

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