More and More of Test Cricket for India in Next Eight Years

Test cricket aplenty for India against top-ranked teams - Indian cricket fans would be licking their lips at this piece of news.

Bilateral agreements, which the BCCI gave their written consent to, show that the Indian cricket team will contest 20 Tests against England, 16 against Australia and 12 against South Africa during the next eight years from 2015 to 2023, reported Cricinfo.

To add to this, India will be involved in six bilateral series against Pakistan during the same period, provided the government gives their approval for the series.

India are slated to tour Down Under in December 2014. There will be four Tests and a tri-series with England as the third team. The BCCI has decided to follow the Australian cricket board's way and avoid participating in lengthy and full tours to major cricket-playing nations in the coming eight years, the report added.

"We would have obviously liked long tours both home and away with key countries," Sanjay Patel, the BCCI secretary who was inducted into the ICC governance committee, said. "However, Australia are unwilling to tour for more than six weeks anywhere except England, so we have also decided to split the Test and ODI tours to Australia."

Splitting long tours up is always a helpful factor as, for instance, if the Indian team is participating in a four-Test series in Australia, they would embark to play a series of limited over internationals in New Zealand, Wisden India quoted Patel.

"We've entered into agreements with all the ten Test-playing nations. India will continue to play five-Test series against England, both home and away. It will be four-match rubbers against Australia. Both England and Australia will play four Test series against us, home and away, in the next eight-year cycle," the BCCI secretary pointed out.

At Melbourne, as the International Cricket Council annual meeting was being held, the Test-playing countries gave their consent to the new bilateral agreements, according to the report.

Sporting relations with Pakistan, especially cricketing ones, have more often than not been affected by diplomatic relations or tensions with the country.

"We have let the PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) know about our stance that we have no issues in playing a series with them but we will need our government's clearance first," Patel stressed.

According to new agreements, India would have to be involved in two Test series every season between October and March, except when they tour Down Under. The Aussies still hold their right to host their traditional Boxing Day Test match on 26 December in Melbourne every year, Patel confirmed.

"The bilateral agreement has been designed in such a way that it will benefit other countries too," he stated.

In accordance with the newly structured ICC revenue model, BCCI will make as much as Rs 4,000 crore over the next eight years, and this means they will earn more than 13 times than what they earn at present.

"Our share of the revenue from ICC events like World Cup, World T20, etc is 22% of gross plus 4% afterwards. England's will be 47% of gross and Australia's 2.9%. South Africa's share is 1.3% while West Indies and New Zealand's share would be 0.8% and 0.5% respectively," the BCCI secretary said.