The ICC posted $756 million in revenue and a 72% surplus margin in 2025. The money is real. Whether it's being spent to grow cricket globally is a different question.
The ICC's 2025 financial statements confirm what many already knew: international cricket is a high-margin business sitting on serious money. But the numbers, impressive as they are, raise more questions than they answer.
In the 2025 financial year, the ICC generated over $756 million in revenue and reported a surplus of $543 million. That's a surplus margin of nearly 72%, which by any measure is excellent. The bulk of it came from ICC events: the Champions Trophy, the Women's World Cup, and the World Test Championship final together drove almost $706 million, or over 93% of total revenue. On the cost side, event expenses were $159 million and general administration was around $46 million, leaving the commercial model looking quite lean.
Over 93% of ICC revenue came from its events
The balance sheet tells a similar story of accumulation. The ICC now holds over $1.1 billion in member funds. Of that, $959 million is earmarked for distribution to member boards, with $149 million retained as internal reserves. The money is there. The governance questions are ….. what does the ICC do with it?
Taking these figures at face value, the results look strong. But the more useful comparison is against what the ICC projected it would earn, and whether the organization captured its full commercial potential. Maybe …. but Maybe Not!
Success isn't measured only by how much money the ICC earns. It has to be measured by how much stronger world cricket becomes.
That matters. Cricket's revenue base remains heavily concentrated. Over 93% of income flows from a relatively small number of traditional markets. The ICC is sitting on over a billion dollars in member funds while the global footprint of the sport stays narrow.
The $959 million in planned member distributions sounds substantial until you ask how it is allocated across the ICC's membership. The gap between what full members receive and what associate and affiliate members get has long been a source of frustration for smaller cricket nations trying to build competitive programs. Revenue figures this large and the gap becoming larger only accelerate that conversation.
"The real question is whether this money is being distributed fairly, invested wisely, and used to grow the game beyond its relatively few traditional markets." — Faisal Hasnain
The accounts confirm that international cricket has money. What they cannot confirm, on their own, is whether that money is doing the work the sport actually needs it to do.
