Ali Bacher Slams BCCI, ECB and Cricket Australia For Influencing World Cricket

It is not a secret that 3 cricket boards, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the England Cricket Board, and the Australian Cricket Board are the most powerful and most influential in the World and are often considered the Big Three of the World cricket, something that former South African Cricket board’s president Ali Bacher has claimed is sidelining other nations and has marginalized Pakistan as well as the Proteas cricket teams.

Even if the English and Australian boards are less powerful, the BCCI is considered the richest and the strongest board in the world which generates a huge amount of revenue. Therefore, the Indian board has a lot of influence and has often dictated decisions of the ICC.

The International Cricket Council, knowing BCCI’s wealth and revenue stream, is often reluctant to go against BCCI. And that is because more than half of what ICC generates comes through Indian cricket. Be it IPL or bilateral series, BCCI’s dominance in the scene has a lot to do with Cricket’s mad popularity in India.

Ever since the 1983 World Cup win in England against the mighty West Indies, India has seen a massive influx of cricketers in the country, and with each passing year, the numbers keep on increasing. It has led Ali Bacher to think that other cricket-playing nations and boards are not able to grow and develop due to BCCI’s clear monopoly.

He claimed that nations like South Africa, Pakistan, and the West Indies have been pushed to a corner to the point that they have been marginalized. The West Indies cricket board was in fact on the verge of collapsing due to no source of revenue stream.

But at the same time, it should be noted that Cricket has grown in nations like Afghanistan, UAE, Nepal and now the USA but Bacher specifically finds BCCI’s dominance as unhealthy for World cricket.

“When I was the chairman of ICC’s development committee, my objective was to spread the game. It’s not happening today. Cricket today is dominated by India, Australia, England. South Africa has been marginalised, Pakistan has been marginalised, West Indies has been marginalised. That’s not good.” – Ali Bacher said.

Ali Bacher Slams BCCI For Generating 70% Of World Cricket’s Revenue

The 81-year-old also raised the fact that BCCI is dominating 70% of World cricket’s money, which is not being used in the development of smaller nations, something Ali Bacher would want to happen. “You need to grow the game. The problem is that finance of world cricket is dominated by India and 70 percent of world cricket money comes through India from whatever direction. I would like to see development of smaller nations, that was my profound passion.” – Bacher added.

Ali Bacher also expressed his disappointment in everyone trying to grab the Cricket market in USA, something he believes is not going to happen.

“You need billions and billions of dollars to get a small niche of that (USA) market. To be honest, I called it a day after two occasions. It wasn’t going to happen. The way it should happen is, growth of cricket should be in Asia. There is enormous potential. Not in the USA as its far too expensive.” – Ali Bacher concluded.