Historically, international sports was played between sports-playing nations around the world in bilateral ('between two countries') or multilateral ('between multiple countries') series. Under a bilateral/multilateral system, sports-playing nations would invite teams from other nations to compete for a particular title, league, friendly match, and so on. Examples include the Lansdowne Cup between the national rugby teams of Ireland and Australia, or invitational games between the national cricket teams of India, Pakistan, Australia, and so on. Each country's representative sports team is owned and managed by the government, where all players on the team must hold citizenship in that country.
On the other hand, in franchise leagues, sports teams are privately owned and managed. Franchise teams can consist of a mix of players from different nationalities, and often play in extensive seasons. Examples of franchise leagues are the Indian Premier League for cricket and the English Premier League for football.
Recently, the rise in franchise sporting leagues has come at the expense of bilateral/multilateral sports series due to complications in scheduling and resource management.