Reports | ICC lacks clarity about technical director Anil Kumble’s role in Euro T20 Slam

A couple of days ago, Anil Kumble voiced his opinion that the BCCI should allow its cricketers to participate in the foreign T20 leagues in the draft function in London. Then it came to notice that Kumble was hired as an advisor for the league being co-hosted by Cricket Ireland, Cricket Scotland and Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Board. 

However, as per a report on the Times of India, ICC’s events monitoring group which was formed by the world body to “study” the recent sprouting of unregulated T20 leagues around the world - had no idea of Kumble’s participation in the tournament in any role and left completely embarrassed.  

“He (Kumble) may have followed the necessary protocols for all you know. But the thing is, the events monitoring group could’ve certainly benefited from the intelligence. They didn’t have an idea,” say those in the know.

Even some BCCI officials have also claimed to have no idea about the league.

The growing problem of the fact that the T20 leagues like Euro T20 Slam are highly unregulated and the board feels that this might end up as “right pickle to draft the recipe of a disaster”. The ICC is especially worried about Euro T20 Slam, Global T20 League in Canada and Afghanistan Premier League.

“Honestly, if something is not done about it, this could turn out to be pandemic in multiple ways. Nobody who is in charge of running these so-called systems in place has an idea of who is behind the inception of these properties,” a senior cricket executive associated with the world body at various levels over the years tells TOI. 

“There are several such individuals from these sectors who are part of these set-ups. Their names won’t pop up on Google searches. They’re rich but not famous. That’s exactly how they prefer to be. They’re everywhere. And sorry to say, almost every second name you hear is from India,” sources added.