Greenberg warns five-day Test calendar could collapse weaker boards

Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg has warned that forcing the world’s weaker boards to sustain a traditional, five-day Test calendar could push them toward financial collapse, as the sport marks 100 days until the Ashes series in Perth with a renewed focus on quality over quantity. He argued that a leaner calendar and the potential introduction of divisions or tiers would help preserve the long-format game where it matters most, while ensuring marquee series like the Ashes remain financially and culturally meaningful.

Greenberg’s remarks come as the global landscape of Test cricket identities itself around the enduring appeal of the five-day format. He stressed that investment must go into the right spaces—those competitions and formats that carry jeopardy and prestige—rather than forcing every nation to compete in a format that may be economically untenable for some boards. He called the Ashes “enormous and profitable” precisely because it carries significance beyond the normal schedule, a sentiment that has accompanied a wave of interest in recent home-and-away cycles and the broader prominence of the series.

The 100-day milestone to the home Ashes series in...