BCCI mulls Champions Trophy boycott as a means of opposing ICC's revenue rollback plan

The Big three revenue model of 2014 guarantees the boards of India, Australia, and England the majority of the revenue for the period between 2015-2023.

In a two-hour Special General Meeting (SGM) which was attended by top board officials, including acting president CK Khanna, joint secretary Amitabh Chaudhary and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry, as well as BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, the members decided to oppose ICC’s new constitution that seeks to reduce India’s share in revenue and power.

The members of the board see the revenue rollback as ‘a stab in the back’ with a top source who was privy to the meeting saying, "The officials at the meeting agreed that ICC is breaching the contract. It was suggested at the SGM that BCCI had been honoring bilateral commitments on Future Tours Programme (FTP) over the past two years only on account of the 2014 revenue and governance model that gave the Big Three sweeping powers. If ICC changes it now, it will be breaching the contract and stabbing BCCI in the back.”

The board is all set to take the necessary action and protect India’s interests by saying, “The Board officials agreed they will fight tooth and nail to protect BCCI’s interests. They believe Manohar hadn’t given the true picture to the Board members last year when he pressed for a change in the revenue model,”  while also saying, “BCCI reserves its rights to take all necessary decisions to exercise the rights under the Member's Participation Agreement (MPA).”

India also have the option of pulling out of the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy starting in England on June 1st as well as taking take legal recourse if ICC doesn’t rescind its plans to roll back the Big Three proposals.

The SGM also identified ICC President Shashank Manohar as the biggest obstacle in their path, as he pushes for a more equitable distribution of the revenue and power among all the national boards. The Indian board is also set to receive the backing of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. BCCI only needs the support of 1/3rd of the members.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the Supreme Court of India authorised BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary to attend the ICC meeting and asked CEO Rahul Johri to accompany him.

Finally, the SGM also ratified the payments to be made to former women cricketers, as announced on April 12, as there was uncertainty over the payments due to differences between the Committee of Administrators (CoA) and the Board officials. And BCCI also decided to double the prize money for the Indian cricket team from Rs. 50 lac to 1 crore after their series win over Australia.