Bilateral Series in Cricket: What They Are and How They Work
A bilateral series is a set of matches between two cricket nations played at agreed venues. Learn how bilateral series are scheduled, why they matter for rankings, and how they differ from ICC tournaments.
A bilateral series in cricket is a set of matches between two national cricket teams, typically played as part of an official tour. One country's team tours the other's home ground(s) — or occasionally a neutral venue — and plays a pre-agreed number of matches across one or more formats. Bilateral series are the backbone of international cricket's calendar and represent the majority of matches played between ICC Full Member nations. Unlike ICC tournaments (which involve multiple nations in a World Cup or Champions Trophy format), bilateral series are a direct head-to-head competition between exactly two countries.
How Bilateral Series Are Scheduled
Bilateral series are scheduled through the ICC's Future Tours Programme (FTP) — a multi-year schedule that allocates tours between member nations to ensure each major cricket nation plays a minimum number of home and away series across a given period. The FTP is renegotiated periodically (typically every four to eight years) and is the primary mechanism through which cricket boards plan their revenues and team development programmes. Under the current FTP structure, Test-playing nations are guaranteed a minimum number of Test series and white-ball bilateral series each cycle. The scheduling balances home series (which generate ticket and broadcasting revenue for the host nation) with away tours (which test teams against different conditions and build rivalry).
Series Formats: Tests, ODIs, and T20s
Most bilateral tours include matches across multiple formats — a combination of Tests, ODIs, and T20 International matches. A typical England–Australia tour might include five Tests (the Ashes), three ODIs, and three T20Is. A typical India–South Africa bilateral might include two Tests, three ODIs, and four T20Is. The specific number of matches is agreed between the two boards and depends on scheduling availability, commercial agreements with broadcasters, and player workload management. The rise of T20 franchise cricket since 2008 (IPL, BBL, PSL, SA20) has created tension in bilateral scheduling as players are increasingly unavailable for long international tours during franchise league windows.
Bilateral Series vs. ICC Tournaments
The distinction between bilateral series and ICC tournaments is important for understanding international cricket's structure. Bilateral series: between two nations only, scheduled by the FTP, predominantly hosted by one of the two nations, results count for ICC rankings. ICC tournaments: multiple nations, held in one host country (or split across multiple), every four years typically, results count for ICC rankings and qualification for future ICC events. The ICC calendar alternates between bilateral series filling most of the schedule and ICC events (T20 World Cup every two years, ODI World Cup every four years, Champions Trophy, Test Championship Final) representing the sport's peak events.
How Bilateral Results Affect ICC Rankings
All bilateral series results count toward ICC rankings across all three formats. Each match win/loss/draw is weighted by the rating difference between the two teams and the importance of the series: series with more matches generally carry more total weight. Home wins are treated the same as away wins in ICC rankings (unlike football's qualification tables), though wins away from home are considered more impressive informally and some ranking models weight away wins higher. The ICC Test Championship — introduced in 2019 — specifically used points from bilateral Test series to determine which two nations qualified for the inaugural World Test Championship Final at Lord's in 2021 (New Zealand beat India), giving bilateral Test series an additional competitive dimension beyond the traditional series trophy.
Frequently asked questions
What is a bilateral series in cricket?
A bilateral series is a set of scheduled cricket matches between exactly two national teams — typically as part of a tour where one country visits another's home ground. It is distinct from ICC tournaments involving multiple nations. Most bilateral series are part of the ICC's Future Tours Programme (FTP), a multi-year scheduling framework that guarantees each major nation a minimum number of home and away tours.
How many matches are in a bilateral cricket series?
The number varies by agreement between the two boards. Test series typically have 2–5 matches (the Ashes has 5 Tests). ODI series are usually 3–5 matches. T20 series are typically 3–5 matches. A full international tour might include 2 Tests, 3 ODIs, and 3 T20Is across several weeks in one country, though tour lengths have shrunk since 2010 due to franchise league scheduling conflicts.
Do bilateral series results count for ICC rankings?
Yes — all bilateral series results across Tests, ODIs, and T20Is count toward the ICC's official team rankings in each format. Results are weighted by the rating gap between the two teams (beating a higher-ranked opponent earns more rating points) and are also incorporated into the ICC World Test Championship points table, which determines which teams qualify for the WTC Final every two years.