2023 ICC Betting Odds

Cricket has seen a real push for modernization in recent years.

New formats such as T20 and The Hundred have popped up, as have new competitions.

Another part of this modernization has been a huge increase in the ease and accessibility of online cricket betting. 

Cricket is the most popular sport in India by far and this is reflected in the betting markets, of which there are hundreds.

With multiple formats, leagues, competitions, and player-specific markets to explore, cricket betting has become one of the most diverse on the planet.

Here, we will look at one very big side of it, the ICC, which is essentially international cricket.

ICC Betting Odds Explained

The ICC, or International Cricket Council, is the global governing body of cricket.

It is made up of 12 full members, which are the nations that play Test cricket.

The ICC is responsible for all major international cricket tournaments. In the men’s game, these are:

• ICC Cricket World Cup
• ICC T20 World Cup
• ICC World Test Championship
• ICC Cricket World Cup Super League
• ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup

The ICC also governs the equivalents in the women’s game and is responsible for calculating, compiling, and maintaining all the various rankings in the international game. The rankings include those for both teams and players.

Essentially, if the cricketing event you want to bet on is happening on the international stage, then it is the ICC that is running it.

For example, here are the pre-tournament odds for the 2023 Cricket World Cup:

India 3.20	3.20
England	4.00
Australia	5.50
Pakistan	7.50
New Zealand	9.50
South Africa	11.00
Sri Lanka	27.00
Bangladesh	61.00
Afghanistan	71.00
Netherlands	601.00

As you can see from the above, India is a strong favourite to win the 2023 World Cup, with England and Australia also fancied.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands team is a serious outsider.

ICC Betting Market Overview

With so many tournaments and rankings covered by the ICC, it is easy to understand just how vast the betting markets are.

There are so many that it is probably easier to break them down to best explain them.

ICC World Cups

Unlike other sports, cricket has four World Cup tournaments – two for the men’s game and two for the women’s game.

The oldest of these is the Cricket World Cup, which is held every four years and is an ODI competition.

Specifically, this is 50 overs per innings, one innings each. In addition to this, there is the T20 World Cup, which is a Twenty20 format (20 overs per innings, one innings each).

This is played every two years.

As with World Cups in all sports, the betting markets extend from backing teams to win the trophy before the competition even starts to match-by-match betting.

There are also specific player markets throughout the competition, such as leading run-makers and wicket-takers.

ICC World Test Championship

For many cricket fans, Test matches will always be the pinnacle of the sport.

For much of cricket’s history, Test matches have been played in isolated series between two teams that counted for little once the final ball had been bowled.

However, in 2019, the ICC started the World Test Championship to give those results some extra meaning.

Played in cycles of two years, the World Test Championship ranks all 12 Test-playing teams according to their performances, with the highest-ranked teams at the end of the cycle pitted against each other in a one-off match for the trophy and title.

Betting on who will win throughout the two-year cycle is a very popular market in cricket betting.

ICC Team Rankings

Which is the best T20 team in the world?

Which is the team to beat when it comes to Test cricket?

Which country bosses it in ODIs? The ICC determines the answers to all these questions by maintaining rankings based on performance.

Cricket markets predicting which team will become the number one ranked team in any given format of the game take a huge number of wagers across the year.

ICC Player Rankings

It isn’t just international teams that the ICC keeps rankings of.

They also maintain rankings of players by performance as well.

Cricket talent spotters can then back a batsman, bowler, or all-rounder to top the rankings in any format of the game. There are also markets for breaking into the top ten as well.

ICC Betting Rules

If you are going to do some ICC betting, then you are going to need to bear a few things in mind.

Know The Different Formats

Generally speaking, countries such as India and England are excellent across all formats of the game.

This isn’t usually the case, though. For example, at the time of writing, Pakistan is ranked at number two in the world for ODIs and at number three for T20s.

However, the team is languishing at number six in the Test rankings.

Similarly, Australia ranks highly for Tests and ODIs but struggles in T20s.

Don’t assume a team will be good at one format just because they are good at another.

Check The Line-ups

With such a packed cricketing calendar, players are vulnerable to fatigue.

To counter this, many have decided to limit their availability in certain formats of the game.

For example, Ben Stokes is one of the most destructive batsmen in the world but rarely played ODIs prior to coming out of retirement recently to play for England.

This is the sort of fact you should know before you are tempted to back him to top of the ODI batting rankings. In other words, do your homework.

More Points Do Not Necessarily Mean A Higher Ranking

In other sports, such as football and tennis, rankings are purely points-based.

The more points you have, the higher you rank.

However, because international cricket teams play to their own calendars, a team’s ranking is adjusted to reflect the number of matches they have played.

Therefore, a team’s ranking is not based on a total number of points but instead on average points per match.

ICC Betting Strategy

Having good knowledge of the markets is only going to get you so far in cricket betting.

You are going to need a good cricket strategy too, so here are some to consider.

Play The Long Game

Unless you are betting only on a match-by-match basis, you are going to need to play the long game in ICC betting.

All international cricket is usually building towards something, so if you are backing a team to win a trophy ahead of time then don’t judge them on the team they are now – try to project what they will look like in a year or two when the trophy is being handed out.

Understand Differences In Conditions

Many cricket tournaments are played in one country, therefore under one set of conditions.

Examples include the Indian Premier League and the English County Championship. International cricket, though, is very different.

It is a global sport and cricket conditions differ wildly depending on where you are in the world.

England is ideal for swing bowling, Australia for pace and bounce, the sub-continent for spin, and so on.

Indeed, even the ball itself can change depending on where you are in the world.

Learning which teams do well – or poorly – in which conditions will be a key skill in successful ICC betting.

Follow The Form

Cricket, like any other sport, is a form game. Batsmen in particular come in and out of form regularly as concentration levels and rhythm are hard to maintain for long periods.

This is particularly the case when conditions change all the time as they go from continent to continent.

Keeping up-to-date with who is currently hot and who is not is therefore a vitally important ICC betting strategy.