Sunil Gavaskar : India not wrong to withdraw from Champions Trophy

04/29/2017

BCCI

Sunil Gavaskar believes BCCI has every right to decide against participating in the ICC Champions Trophy to be held in England in June. The former India captain also wondered how both BCCI and ICC could have let matters get so far that the defending champions might skip the global competition.

There are serious concerns in the ICC that India might not participate in the Champions Trophy after the BCCI missed the April 25 deadline to submit the squad to the sport's governing body. The ICC went as far as to offer an additional $100m to the $290 million share in the ICC's proposed new revenue model that was rejected by the BCCI.

Gavaskar, however, said that although India are being questioned for not complying with the ICC, it was important to remember that India were "within their rights" to pull out from the tournament.

“If they go strictly by the book, when the 2014 model came into being, I think with that legal agreement, they are entirely within their rights if they decide to withdraw from the tournament. The agreement that was there in 2014 has been completely overlooked. I don’t think we should forget that,” Gavaskar told NDTV.

“The thing is, if the 2014 model has been overlooked, maybe you can overlook the 2017 model also in a couple of months. That is also entirely possible because, in this world of constantly changing loyalties and constant changing friends, anything can happen,” he added. said.

Gavaskar also highlighted the fact that most countries' earnings increase significantly when they play against India, and, as such, it is not in the best interest of the ICC to isolate India.

“What perhaps would be — Australia and England (series) has been there since 1877 and is an iconic series — when it comes to other countries playing, they don’t get that kind of money. When India tour the money doubles, trebles, quadruples, I don’t exactly know by how much. So, there is no way India can be isolated,” Gavaskar explained.

The 67-year-old also blasted the BCCI for allowing the situation reach such a point, saying that the loss of control in the ICC was completely the Indian board's fault.

“The only influence that has remained constant at international level has been that of England and Australia… Maybe India is not as powerful as it was maybe a couple of years back. Maybe they will have to look within themselves why that has happened, because of things that have happened, and only the BCCI is responsible for that,” Gavaskar said.

Gavaskar asked if the ICC were so adamant on an equal distribution of profits, why were they offering India the extra amount.

“If the $590 million or whatever the BCCI was supposed to get, if that is wrong, then how is the $290 million or the other $100 million that is being offered, right? If the whole idea is equitable distribution among all cricket boards, then every board must get exactly the same amount,” he said.

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