ICC 2028 calendar gap analysis May-August window scheduling

The ICC's 2025-2031 Future Tours Programme carries an unusual feature in 2028: no major men's ICC event between May and August. The four-month window that traditionally hosts the Champions Trophy or the T20 World Cup is empty in the 2028 calendar. Bilateral cricket has rushed to fill it. The LA 2028 Olympic Games window, with cricket as a confirmed sport for the first time since 1900, creates a unique scheduling complication. The gap analysis matters for board revenue, broadcaster planning, and the players' workload curves.

What the FTP 2028 May-August window contains

The published Future Tours Programme for 2028 has the May-August window populated with bilateral series only. England host Pakistan for two Tests in late May to early June. Australia tour Bangladesh for a three-match ODI series in late June. India tour Sri Lanka for two Tests in late July (a year-out from the WTC 2029 cycle's mid-point). The Hundred occupies July through mid-August in England. The window's absence of an ICC global event is the first since 2003 (the last pre-modern era gap). The reason: the LA 2028 Olympic Games, scheduled 14 to 30 July, occupies a discrete tournament window that the ICC chose not to schedule a separate men's event around. The Olympic cricket competition is six-team men's and women's T20 (squads of 15, schedules within an 11-day tournament window).

Why the gap is unusual

Across the past 20 years, the ICC has consistently placed either a Champions Trophy, a T20 World Cup, or a Women's ODI World Cup in the May-August window. The 2017 Champions Trophy in England (June 2017), the 2019 ODI World Cup (May-July 2019), the 2024 T20 World Cup (June 2024), the 2025 Champions Trophy (February 2025, after relocation), and the 2027 ODI World Cup (October-November 2027) all anchor major windows. The 2028 calendar empty space is a deliberate choice. The ICC's chair has noted that the Olympic cricket competition serves as a top-tier event in that window for the global audience, and the ICC has prioritised bilateral pathway support around it. Watch our Future Tours Programme tracker for the complete fixture grid.

Bilateral congestion and the broadcaster question

The void left by the absent ICC event has produced bilateral congestion. England's home summer 2028 hosts Pakistan (two Tests, three ODIs, three T20Is) and India tour visits (one Test, five ODIs, five T20Is) compressed into 60 days. Australia tour Bangladesh in mid-June, followed by a New Zealand tour at end-August. South Africa host the Asia A teams in early July, with a flow-through to the Test series against Australia at home in late August. The broadcaster question: with no global event to anchor the window, bilateral cricket inventory is fragmented across 9 simultaneous host-tour matchups, which dilutes broadcaster ad revenue and complicates streaming-rights packaging. Star, Disney, Channel 7, Sky, and ESPN are negotiating reduced premium-window pricing for the 2028 window.

LA 2028 Olympic cricket and the scheduling tension

LA 2028 Olympic cricket is scheduled 14-25 July at a temporary venue in Pomona, California, with six men's teams and six women's teams competing in a T20 format. The participating teams are India, Australia, England, Pakistan, USA (host), West Indies (men) and India, Australia, England, New Zealand, USA, West Indies (women), with squads of 15 each. The scheduling tension: senior international players from the participating six men's nations are unavailable for bilateral fixtures during the Olympic window (10 to 28 July). England's home summer 2028 schedule has been re-jigged to place the India ODI series before the Olympic window. Australia's bilateral fixtures pause for the same period. The shadow effect ripples across non-participating nations. South Africa, for example, faces difficulty scheduling against any of the six participating sides in late July.

What changes and who benefits

The most likely outcome: the May-August 2028 window becomes the busiest bilateral cricket period in modern history, and broadcaster revenue per match falls compared to a typical ICC-event-anchored window. India, England and Australia gain because their home summer commercial revenue dominates. Non-participating Olympic teams (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, South Africa, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands) lose because their bilateral fixtures against top-six teams are disrupted. The wider impact on the ICC: the Olympic cricket integration is a 25-year ambition fulfilled, but the cost is a complicated scheduling year for the senior calendar. For more context, see our LA 2028 Olympic cricket preview and the WTC 2029 cycle tracker.