BCCI wants ICC to stick to Big Three model till June

PTI: In a special general meeting in Delhi on Tuesday, the BCCI’s member units passed a unanimous resolution to ask the ICC Board to retain the ‘Big Three’ revenue model until its annual general meeting in London in June.

It is learnt that Amitabh Choudhary, the acting BCCI secretary, will present the Indian board’s point of view at the ICC’s Board Meeting in Dubai next week.

“A resolution has been passed at the SGM that we will ask ICC to carry on with the existing model where Australia, England and India get the lion’s share of revenue,” a top official who attended the meeting told PTI. “We will definitely work out a new model during the London meeting. This was today unanimously passed by the forum.”

Introduced in 2014, the Big Three model was a part of governance and financial restructuring in the ICC that gave greater power to the BCCI, Cricket Australia and the ECB. Recently, however, the ICC has sought to overturn those changes. In February, a new constitution was passed in principle. If ratified, it could undo much of the imbalance in power and finances of the Big Three model.

Choudhary, on his part, only said that protecting India’s interest will be his primary objective. “The Committee of Administrators (COA) has given a formula which is beneficial to India. We would take ingredients from it also.”

Any decision on India’s Champions Trophy participation will be taken only after the ICC Board Meeting, but most members present at the BCCI’s SGM were against taking any extreme position.