Reports | BCCI-led Big Five all set to write to ICC about governing council's arbitrary plans
According to a report, the top brass of cricket’s ‘Big Five’, led by the BCCI, is ready to write to the ICC regarding the ‘arbitrary decisions’ that the governing council has been taking of late. It is understood that the select administrators of these five nations met in Mumbai on Monday.
It was already learnt that the top administrators of the BCCI, including President Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah, were supposed to meet the CEOs of CA [Kevin Roberts] and NZC [David White] in Mumbai. These important board members would watch the game, the series opener between India and Australia at Wankhede, and also discuss important issues.
Additionally, it was later known that there was a lunch meeting of select administrators from India, England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand held at a five-star hotel in Mumbai. The idea of ‘Big Three’ in cricket was first conceptualised by former BCCI president N Srinivasan, who was also present at the said meeting. And according to a report, the concept is now expanded to a Big Five setup, albeit still a vision.
After having discussed it together, the said board representatives apparently took the call to write to the ICC. Their combined intention is to make the ICC aware of the fact that "arbitrary decisions being taken without consulting the members who bring in the revenue" are doing no good to cricket and its administration. The letter was signed by all four members with only NZC’s signature being awaited.
"Ever since it (ICC) got a new chief executive, the focus has only been on ICC tournaments. One ICC tournament every year, a new six-nation white ball tournament, two World T20s every four years, a 50-over World Cup every three years. Today we read about some considerations being made for a 20-team World T20. What's going on? We understand these are just discussions but most are simply meaningless," sources in the know told TOI.
Recently, the ICC’s idea of four-day Tests have also caused a ruckus and the Big Five want such random decisions to be officially discussed first with them.
"Where's all this coming from? Who is making these plans? The BCCI is clearly not on board. The ECB is clear that it shares BCCI's thoughts.CA is present to hear out what BCCI and ECB have to say. The letter to ICC is precisely to the point - what exactly is it up to? Do they have the members interests in mind or are interested in running their own tournaments?" sources added.