This story was first published at Play the Game. Cricket’s power brokers gather in Edinburgh this week for the Annual Conference of the sport’s governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC). On the agenda: how to divvy up the game’s money. Not on the agenda: how the system that hands out the funds is being gamed, insiders say. “After 28 years of the ICC's development programme,” one administrator told a Play the Game survey, “GREED is still the key to earning money, sacrificing national cricket development.” Speaking with Play the Game on condition of anonymity, some member-country administrators raised concerns around the potential for fraud and lack of accountability in the global development programme run by the ICC. “There’s an enormous amount of money floating around,” said another chairperson. “The programme is designed to enhance certain countries and make the others survive just enough that they don’t die.” A quick guide to how the cricket money flows The ICC has 12 Full Members and 98 Associate Members. Full Members like India, Australia, and England take 88.8% of the organisation’s budget, allocated mainly by the commercial value they bring to the ICC. India alone takes nearly 40% of the ICC’s annual earnings – largely thanks to its vast broadcast market. The Associate Members “where cricket is firmly established and organised”, according to the ICC, operate mostly on volunteer labour, with few having more than one or two full-time staff. The ICC distributes the remaining 11.2% of its budget among the Associate Members through two funding streams: a competition grant – participation and reward money for ICC tournaments – and a ‘Scorecard’ grant, a payment meant to incentivise the growth of grassroots cricket. The latter is allocated based on a so-called Scorecard containing self-reported statistics including how many seniors and juniors play, the number of pitches available and how much funding members raise outside the ICC. Based on the Scorecards, members are ranked and placed into 14 funding tiers – determining how much they receive. According to documents obtained exclusively by Play the Game, the total pot for Associate Members in 2026-27 is USD 54.9 million, with the Scorecard grant making up just over half.