Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg believes there needs to be more jeopardy and meaning in bilateral ODIs but is concerned by the revenue loss if they are removed from the Future Tours Programme (FTP) entirely.

Speaking in Darwin on Thursday during Australia’s first Test with Bangladesh, Greenberg revealed Gupta had made similar comments at a CA staff meeting during a visit to Melbourne recently. Greenberg said he agrees with the idea of creating more jeopardy and meaning in bilateral ODIs but is concerned by the commercial ramifications for cricket boards around the world if they are removed altogether.

“I think the principle of his comments are that the games that are played need to matter and have context and jeopardy,” Greenberg said.

“We fundamentally believe that. But we’re also realists to know that bilateral ODIs make up a significant portion of our broadcast agreements, so we’ve got to find a way if we’re going to create more jeopardy and meaning, and we’re going to move them, what are we replacing them with, and how do you replace the revenues that go with those?

“So there’s a fine balance here. Some of that’s short term, some of it long term. But the principle of what he’s saying is right. Creating jeopardy and meaning into the games we play is important. But it’s not an easy solve.”

Greenberg is part of the ICC working group that is finalising the FTP for 2028-31 and they are also looking what a rough 2032-35 version would look like.

“We’ve advocated strongly,” Greenberg said. “Andrew’s made it pretty clear to me that’s a position he wants to carry. So we’ve passed that feedback on to the ICC. So we’ve got some conversations scheduled with them, and I think there’s a number of countries have said similar, given the change to it, that those squad sizes are important. So that’s an issue on their table.”

“I don’t know a lot of the background other than that was presented at the ICC conference,” Greenberg said. “I assume it’s just about trying to extract commercial value for those World Cups. And I saw some recent comments that some of the Associates are unhappy. I get that. Hopefully, there’s a pathway for more Associates to look at the T20 World Cup as opposed to the ODI World Cup, so I think that’s what the ICC is planning will be.

“That’s how it was presented to us. We would support that strategy.”