Why this week's ICC meetings matter

Follow the money
The Big Three's model of revenue distribution drew considerable outrage when it was unveiled in 2014. In it, the BCCI (20.3%), ECB (4.4%) and CA (2.7%) assigned to themselves a 27.4% share of the total revenues the ICC would make over eight years. And they never revealed the calculations that underpinned that model.

A review report commissioned by the ICC in February 2016 will put forward a new financial model. The details of it remain a closely guarded secret but it is expected that the shares of the BCCI, in particular, and maybe the ECB, will be cut. By how much is the big question - the ICC chairman Shashank Manohar once spoke of a 6% cut. Other numbers see the BCCI's share being halved.

Expect this to be a complicated discussion, made more so by the uncertainty of who exactly appears on behalf of the BCCI at the board meeting where the report will be presented.

Dude, where's my context?
For a year now, cricket has been wrestling with a way to inject context and meaning into every international game. Since the last board meeting in October, however, some clarity has emerged.

Cricket knows what it doesn't want: the two-tier (or two-division) structure. Cricket knows (kind of) what it wants: a conference-style Test structure. There is broad consensus on this option: two conferences of six teams, playing each other over a two-year period, perhaps "crossing over" for occasional contests across conference, and ending with a Test final.

Gaining unanimous and definitive approval would be a start, and possibly the most anyone can hope for from these meetings. At least the game is closer to approving league structures for ODI and T20I cricket.

Also under discussion will be the idea of putting in regional qualification pathways for the World Twenty20, for each of the five regions cricket is divided into. Whether or not Full Member sides have to qualify in future for the World T20 is not clear.

Welcome to the club
If cricket decides to go to the two-conference Test structure, of six teams each, then it will need to bring in two more countries. Hello, Afghanistan and Ireland, the two leading Associate sides.

Their inclusion in a Test programme is under consideration, though any such move will also be linked with a decoupling of Test status from that of Full Member status - that is, you can be a Test-playing country in future, but not necessarily a Full Member (that would mean more members to divide the central revenue pie with).

An important prerequisite has been met in Ireland's case - their domestic competition has been awarded first-class status. Afghanistan's application for similar privilege will be under discussion at the Chief Executive Committee's (CEC) meeting on Thursday. If they have it approved, it could pave the way for two new Test countries.

It looks like a lot to achieve in one weekend but a clear declaration of intent would be a good start.

How to rule?
This will be the boring bit of the meetings that you really should be paying attention to. The ICC is run by committees, some with power, some for show. The Big Three reforms generally concentrated the power to rule in the hands of three boards, across important committees like the ExCo and the Financial & Commercial Affairs committees.

Major changes have already taken place. The ICC chairman, for instance, will now not be simultaneously an official from a member board. The ExCo and F&CA no longer have permanent members, as the Big Three wanted. But there are nine other committees besides these and in recent months there has been some talk of having fewer committees but more empowered management. There has also - brace yourselves - been mention of independent directors and female representation.

Let's TV pool
This is not an ICC matter per se and it will not be on the official agenda. But away from the main meeting, a number of boards will continue discussions on how to create a pool of TV money from bilateral series that allows them to lessen individual reliance on the Indian broadcast market.

The basis of it is to put the money each board gets from the overseas rights (and retain its home market rights money) of its individual broadcast deal into one pool and divide that between the members of the pool.

It is an enticing concept, one not requiring BCCI acquiescence and one that could change the nature of cricket's economy. But it is also one that, logistically, cannot be easy to pull off - just as one example, each board's current broadcast deals end at different times. India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh appear cool to the idea; Australia, England, South Africa are leading the way, with New Zealand and Pakistan also likely to be interested.

Tell me, is there a World Twenty20 in 2018 I should be ready for?
Well… reports first emerged last year that the ICC was keen to slip in another World Twenty20 in its cycle after the success of the 2016 edition in India. But the will for it seems to have lessened since.

Officially, the 2018 World T20 was never on the table so, strictly speaking, it isn't off the table. But it seems as if there will not be much discussion upon it this weekend and even if there is, a view from a relevant stakeholder seems to be that it would be very difficult to take full commercial benefit from such an event in the shorter timeframe available.