How is the annual cricketing schedule of an international team fixed?

Question

How does the ICC fix the cricketing schedule for each cricket playing nation?

Do they fix it on their yearly rankings and points ?

Is there any process for this or the National team boards decide on which team they 
will be playing by discussing with each other ?

such as India will play Australia for this year with 4 ODI and 2 Tests etc.

How the schedule for the fixed tournaments like ASHES,CHAMPIONS TROPHY etc is decided ?

Is it decided by the previous fix of these tournaments.

Does the schedule for Test Playing Teams and ODI Playing Teams are differently fixed ?

As some of the cricket nations like Afghanistan are not even known for test matches

how it is decide on which ground the match will be played ?

Does the playing teams decide which ground will host the matches ?

Answer 1

Play Schedule is basically decided by the cricket boards of both countries. However ICC has to approve this. The hosting country will decide on the venue in which play should happen, but ICC has to approve this as well. If they feel that pitch is dangerous for play, they can ask hosting team to change venue.

Only countries with test status given by ICC can play official test matches. Otherwise it won't be considered as an official international match.

Answer 2

The Schedules of the ICC full members is controlled by the ICC and the member boards. The ICC have the future tours program, the latest copy of which is here. This outlines who will play whom and when. It also identifies what matches will be played and includes the ICC tournaments such as world cup.

The member countries can also arrange other fixtures as well for example England often play ODI's versus Ireland and or Scotland as a local agreement.

As to arranging what grounds the fixtures are played at I believe its a matter for the home board. Certainly that is the case in England where there is a bidding process run by the ECB to decide which matches are played where. I believe the ICC has minimum standards for international grounds but I cant find them at the moment.