The cricketing ecosystem is witnessing a paradigm shift with a major chunk of international cricketers, barring Indians, rejecting their respective country's central contracts to become freelance agents for the T20 leagues across the globe, world players' body FICA stated in its annual report.
It must be mentioned that the Indian players' body is not under the aegis of FICA whose sample survey doesn't include the Indian cricketers. As per the latest report, “49% would consider rejecting a central contract if they were paid more to play in domestic leagues”.
There is a growing debate that 50-over cricket is fast losing its relevance and the survey suggests that there is a marked dip in the percentage of cricketers who still think that ODI World Cup is the most important event in the ICC calender.
“Fifty four per cent still consider the 50 over World Cup as the pinnacle ICC event, although this has reduced significantly from 86% in the 2018/19 FICA survey,” the report stated.
