Veteran all-rounder Angelo Mathews has expressed his displeasure over the Sri Lanka men’s cricket team’s meager Test schedule for 2025.
On social media, Mathews criticized the International Cricket Council (ICC), expressing shock at the limited number of matches allocated to his team.
“It is absolutely shocking to learn that Sri Lanka are only playing four Test matches this entire year, including the Australia Tests this month,” Mathews posted on the X marking ICC.
According to the Future Tours Program (FTP), Sri Lanka will play only four Test matches in 2025.
Two of these matches will conclude in mid-February against Australia, with the remaining two scheduled against Bangladesh in June, marking the start of the 2025-27 ICC World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.
Sri Lanka’s Test schedule for the ongoing 2023-25 edition of the WTC has been similarly reduced, with the team playing 13 matches – only marginally ahead of Bangladesh and South Africa, who have played 12 Tests each.
The future looks even bleaker, with Sri Lanka scheduled to play just eight Tests in 2026 and 2027.
Mathews’ frustration comes amid reports that the ICC is deliberating a two-tier Test system to prioritize matches involving the so-called “Big Three” cricketing nations of India, Australia and England.
The Age reported that ICC chairman Jay Shah is scheduled to meet Cricket Australia chairman Mike Baird and England cricket board chairman Richard Thompson this month to discuss details of the proposal.
The two-tier Test system, launched as a concept since 2016, has faced significant opposition from the BCCI, Zimbabwe Cricket and the Bangladesh Cricket Board, mainly due to concerns about reduced revenue for lower-ranked teams.
Any implementation would only begin after the current FTP ends in 2027.
As one of the historically strong cricketing nations outside the “Big Three”, Sri Lanka’s Test calendar reflects wider concerns about the disparity in games between the teams.
With the ICC focused on expanding its limited-overs calendar and serving lucrative markets, smaller cricketing nations like Sri Lanka risk being further marginalized in the game’s longest format.
