The International Cricket Council’s fast-approaching move to push major amendments that are aimed at dismantling the supremacy of the troika formed by India, Australia and England who, as the ‘Big Three’, perennially enjoy the lion’s share of revenue and a position of super dominance in world cricket, has more than ruffled the Indian Board’s (BCCI) feathers. The ICC’s move comes at a time when there is a vacuum in Indian cricket’s leadership as it’s hardly a week since the Supreme Court appointed a four-member committee of administrators (COA), led by ex-CAG Vinod Rai, to oversee the Board’s administrative affairs. This followed the sacking of the BCCI’s top brass for failing to comply with the Lodha committee recommendations to clean up Indian cricket.
While the COA’s role is interim in nature, its present task is to safeguard the country’s cricketing interests both on and off the field and stave off the move by the ICC to ring in changes that would crush the dominance of the ‘Big Three’. The COA has its priorities as it endeavours to clean-up Indian cricket and make it as fair and transparent as possible. At the same time it has a serious battle to wage as it finds itself in a dilemma “ should it approve the changes suggested by the ICC or recommend that India withdraw from its international engagements beginning with the ICC Champions Trophy in England on June 1. The latter could be a harsh recommendation as it is bound to have serious repercussions both on the revenue and the fans. Cricket is not only a binding force in the country it is also the only big ticket sport in which we excel. Any move to reduce or scale it down is bound to have a negative effect on fans. The fact that Star is ICC’s TV rights partner ensures that the parent body earns in excess of US $2b and of that money, the value that Star puts on Indian cricket is estimated to be around US$1.6b, suggesting that BCCI is a vital cog in the ICC scheme of things.
The fact that ICC’s new model would reduce BCCI share by 34% for the 2015-2023 rights cycle has rubbed the world’s richest cricket board the wrong way. They are right in feeling so. After all, BCCI has also been contributing to the ICC coffers in more ways than one and hence enjoys financial monopoly as world cricket’s ‘Big Daddy’. However, with former BCCI chief Shashank Manohar now at the helm at the ICC, the stage is set for a change as the Indian board will stand to earn less (US$290m) under the new model instead of the US$400m. Therefore, the COA needs to act swiftly to prevent the BCCI from falling prey to ICC’s policy changes or cricket will stand to lose its paramount status in a cricket-mad nation.
