MasterstrokeFormats and competitions
Tour (bilateral series)
How international cricket is scheduled: a touring side plays a host across several formats, in a calendar the boards agree years in advance.
A tour is a visit by one national side to another to play a bilateral series, usually across two or three formats.
A typical tour might be three Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is, though the mix varies with the calendar and the commercial appetite. Tours are planned years ahead in the Future Tours Programme (FTP), the schedule the boards agree between themselves, which sits around the ICC events: T20 World Cups, ODI World Cups, the Champions Trophy and the World Test Championship final. Regional tournaments such as the Asia Cup and occasional tri-series fill the gaps.
For a national coach, the tour is the unit of planning. Squads are named per format, players are rested or rotated across a long trip, and conditions abroad often demand a different XI from the one that wins at home. Results feed the team rankings and, for Tests, the championship table.
In Masterstroke: a national job comes with a full year of touring: tours, tri-series, the Asia Cup and the Crown Series, a T20 World Cup, an ODI World Cup and the Champions Trophy across the calendar.