Friday, 24 January 2014 00:00
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The working committee of the BCCI has unanimously approved the draft proposal, which could result in a structural overhaul of the ICC and cede most of the executive decision-making powers to the BCCI, Cricket Australia and the ECB, at an emergent meeting in Chennai.
“The committee discussed at length the proposals of the ICC Working Group and felt that this proposal was in the interest of cricket at large,” the BCCI said in a release.
A decision was also taken to authorise ‘the office bearers to enter into agreements with ICC for participating in the ICC events and host ICC events, subject to the proposal being approved in the ICC Board’.
The draft proposal will be presented to the ICC Executive Board during its quarterly meeting in Dubai on 28 and 29 January. The document, drafted by a ‘working group’ of the ICC’s Finance & Commercial Affairs (F&CA) committee – in which the BCCI, CA and ECB are key members – recommended wide-ranging changes in the ICC’s revenue distribution model, administrative structures and the Future Tours Program (FTP), questioned the relevance of Test rankings and suggested the reinstatement of the Champions Trophy over the World Test Championship.
Almost every recommendation of the proposal gave a larger share of control over world cricket to the Australian, English and Indian cricket boards – both in the boardroom and on the field. It also gave them a larger share of revenues, in a ratio that is linked to the ICC’s revenue growth.
Boards of ICC members other than India, Australia and England expressed differing views on the proposal. Cricket South Africa argued the idea was ‘fundamentally flawed’ and ‘in breach of the ICC constitution’, while New Zealand Cricket said it was wrong to jump to the conclusion that the proposal would be bad for cricket. FICA, which represents player associations in seven of the ICC’s ten Full Member countries, declared itself ‘extremely concerned’ with the proposal.
