The end may be nigh for one-day international (ODI) cricket, with the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) recommending a "significant reduction" in the amount of 50-over matches from 2027.
Amid an increasingly congested cricket schedule, due to a significant rise in the number of franchise-based Twenty20 leagues around the world, the future of the international game has come under the spotlight in recent years.
International cricket's calendar is effectively locked in until 2027, due to the ICC Future Tours programme, but as the governors of cricket's laws, the MCC's 13-member committee have met during the second Ashes test between England and Australia at Lord's.
As a key recommendation, it proposes that ODIs be reduced, with the exception of World Cups and the year leading up to the global tournament.
"A scarcity of ODI cricket would increase the quality, achieved by removing bilateral ODIs, other than in the one year preceding each World Cup," said the MCC. "This would, as a consequence, also create much-needed space in the global cricketing calendar."
Already, the tug of T20 leagues has proven too great for international players to turn down.
Three Blackcaps - Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme and Martin Guptill - have handed back their New Zealand central contracts or retired from internationals altogether to ply their trade as freelance players in leagues around the world.
In England, Ben Stokes has retired from ODIs, due to the workload of playing all three formats.
Another suggestion from the MCC would see the ICC complete a financial audit of test-playing nations, as a means of strengthening the five-day format.
A 'test fund' would also financially support nations like the West Indies and Sri Lanka, who might not otherwise afford to play five-day cricket.
"It's time for the global game to reset," said MCC chair Mike Gatting. "Too often, member nations are finding themselves living hand to mouth with their cricketing operations, versus having a long-term, viable strategy in place that future-proofs the game in their country, both financially and in terms of participation."
The MCC has also put forward a fund in order to grow the women's game, with nations seeking test status required to field a women's team to become full ICC members.
