Virat Kohli’s former teammate shares what cricket should copy from the FIFA World Cup originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
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Shreevats Goswami says cricket must adopt football’s four-year World Cup wait.
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Too many ICC tournaments between 2023-2027 diluting the sport’s biggest events.
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The T20 World Cup, every two years, strips away the anticipation that makes it special.
Shreevats Goswami says cricket should borrow football’s biggest secret
A former India international and Virat Kohli’s ex-teammate at RCB and from his India Under-19 days, Shreevats Goswami, has pointed to one of football’s greatest strengths and asked why cricket cannot do the same.
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Goswami argues that the sport is giving away one of its most powerful assets by running major tournaments too frequently.
With the 2026 FIFA World Cup delivering one spectacular moment after another, the former cricketer used the occasion to make a pointed comparison between how the two sports manage their biggest events.
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His argument is simple: that the FIFA World Cup happens once every four years, and that gap is not a flaw in the system but the very thing that makes the tournament feel monumental.
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When something only comes around every four years, it carries a weight that simply cannot be manufactured any other way.
Cricket’s problem with overloading major ICC events
In cricket, that weight is being steadily eroded. Between 2023 and 2027 alone, the sport will have hosted four World Cups: two in the 50-over format and two T20 editions.
A T20 World Cup now comes around every two years, which means supporters are barely finished processing one tournament before the next cycle of qualification and preparation begins.
“2026 FIFA wc’s been outstanding so far. One thing cricket could certainly learn from football is the value of “ anticipation “The FIFA World Cup comes around only once every four years,” he wrote on X.
“The “wait” is what makes it feel so special. In cricket, a World Cup every two years takes away that excitement. When something happens too often, it naturally feels less exclusive. The anticipation is part of the magic, thoughts?”
Cricket needs to be honest about what it’s doing to its biggest ICC events
The 50-over World Cup has maintained its four-year cycle and still commands genuine reverence when it arrives.
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The T20 World Cup, by contrast, has been on an accelerating schedule that has made it harder to feel the same level of gravitas before every edition.
One can argue that more cricket means more opportunity, more revenue and more access for fans, and those things matter. But there is a real cost to cheapening your flagship events, and cricket is paying it.
Attendances, broadcast interest and social media engagement all spike harder for rarer events. The FIFA World Cup is proof of what genuine anticipation does to a sporting occasion.
Cricket does not need to copy every element of football’s model, but borrowing the simple wisdom that less is sometimes more when it comes to the biggest prizes would be a good place to start.
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