ICC Future Tours Programme Leak May 2026 — 2027-29 Bilateral Pattern Decoded

The leak arrived at a London newspaper on the morning of May 11. A draft of the ICC Future Tours Programme for the 2027-29 cycle, marked confidential and dated April 28, was published on the Tuesday edition. The reaction inside the ICC FTP committee was immediate. The leak is now its own story. The contents are a bigger one.

Who gets squeezed

The country that loses bilateral volume in the draft is West Indies. The CWI gets a 17 percent reduction in scheduled Test days compared to the 2023-27 cycle, with two bilateral Test series replaced by one Triangular T20I event. The reduction is not the result of CWI under-delivering on the field. It is the result of broadcast carriage value falling below the threshold the FTP committee uses for bilateral allocation.

Who gets the bonus series

Two countries gain bilateral days in the draft. South Africa gets an additional three-Test series at home against India in early 2028. Pakistan gets an additional five-match T20I bilateral against England in summer 2028. The SA series is the bigger commercial uplift because the home-board carriage value for an India tour is among the highest in cricket.

The Test reduction map

The cycle has a structural shift in Test allocation. Tier-1 nations (IND, ENG, AUS) keep their volume. Tier-2 nations (PAK, SA, NZ, SL) gain a small amount. Tier-3 nations (WI, BAN) lose a small amount. The 'newer' Full Members (AFG, ZIM, IRE) keep their existing minimum allocation but do not gain. This is the structural pattern the leak makes visible.

The bilateral attrition story

The draft confirms what bilateral cricket has been heading toward for two cycles. The number of three-Test series in the 2027-29 cycle is lower than 2023-27. The number of two-Test series is higher. The trend is driven partly by broadcast cycles and partly by the rising commercial weight of franchise leagues that compress the bilateral window.

The franchise league windows

The draft formalises protected windows for IPL, The Hundred, SA20, ILT20 and PSL. The IPL window stretches from late March to mid-May. The Hundred window is August. SA20 and ILT20 share a window from late December through January. PSL has a flexible window in April. The protected windows compress the bilateral calendar to roughly 28 weeks per year.

Why the leak matters procedurally

The ICC FTP draft is meant to be ratified at the AGM after a final round of member-board negotiations. A leak at this point exposes negotiating positions before they are firm. Boards that were privately willing to accept the squeeze on the West Indies now have to defend the public draft. The leak hardens positions.

The internal investigation

ICC opened a written investigation into the source of the leak on May 13. Three names are publicly speculated as potential sources, all of them inside the FTP committee. The investigation will report by the AGM. The procedural concern is that any future FTP draft circulation will need tighter access control, which will slow the negotiation process.

What this means for fans

For viewers, the cycle is a continued shift away from three-Test series and toward franchise league dominance. For West Indies fans specifically, the leak is bad news. For Pakistan and South Africa fans, the leak is good news. The bigger question is whether the trend continues into the 2029-33 cycle, where the bilateral compression could become permanent.

What to watch next: whether the ICC AGM ratifies the leaked draft without material changes, because that confirms the bilateral compression trend and the West Indies reduction is locked in for the 2027-29 cycle.

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