How to cope without the most valuable international fixture in all sport? This is the question that international cricket dare not confront.
Following last month’s terrorist attack on India-controlled Kashmir, and the subsequent military responses from both sides, cricket now faces a future in which fixtures between India and Pakistan cease. Should this happen, the sport will be robbed both of its most-watched game and hundreds of millions of pounds.
“The financial consequences for every cricket nation will be huge,” explains one former International Cricket Council insider. “India, England and Australia will be OK because they don’t really rely on ICC money that much.