BCCI Dealt Huge Blow By ICC Ahead Of Sourav Ganguly Taking Over As President
Published - 22 Oct 2019, 11:08 AM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:01 AM
Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly, who is set to take over as BCCI president this week, will have a major task at his hands as soon as he joins the office as ICC has dealt a big blow to the Indian board. In a move that is bound to affect India’s ICC revenue, the apex body of the game has kept BCCI out of the newly-formed working group which will consider a framework for a new governance structure.
As per media reports, the ICC has formed the new group in order to minimise the impact of the ‘Big Three’ model. Big Three consisted of India, England and Australia and ensured that the three nations get the lion’s share of revenue. The working group, nonetheless, does not have any representation from England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) either.
According to Times of India, the primary objective of the group is to get in more independent directors in the powerful ICC board. The newly-formed group will be headed by Cricket Australia (CA) chairman Earl Eddings. Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ehsan Mani, New Zealand Cricket chairman Greg Barclay, Cricket South Africa president Chris Nenzani, Cricket West Indies president Ricky Skerritt and Cricket Scotland chairman Tony Brian will also provide support to the board.
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“The ICC has been consciously trying to go back to the model that was followed from 1998 to 2016. The ICC’s revenues have grown significantly and the BCCI gets a fair share. The other established member boards are struggling with finances and the associates need more funding. That’s why it was first suggested in the annual meeting in London in July that ICC should hold its own events every year to generate more revenue but the BCCI disowned the proposal,” sources told the news outlet.
“The management in the ICC believes that previous model was fair than the model suggested by the previous BCCI regime,” the source added.
For quite some time now, the BCCI has been trying to ensure it gets more percentage of the revenue since India generate the largest percentage of the game’s revenue. However, the ICC has refused to bow down in front of the Indian board. In fact, a few months ago reports suggested that the Shashank Manohar-led ICC threatened to deduct a part of BCCI’s annual revenue share. The ICC had threatened BCCI after the latter failed to ensure complete tax exemption for the 2016 T20 World Cup.
The BCCI, nonetheless, has been caught off guard by ICC’s latest move. The Indian cricket is currently gearing up for the election and can take a step only after it gets over on October 23.
