The ICC's revenues have grown significantly and BCCI gets fair share, reveals ICC source
In a rather bizarre series of events, BCCI has been left out of a newly formed working group by the ICC. The group will be working on a new working structure of the global body and BCCI's omission from it is clearly evident of the widening rift between the two major governing bodies.
The ICC has commissioned a new working group to come up with a new working structure for the ICC. This will be the fourth amendment of the governing structure of the ICC in the last seven years. The prime motive is to eliminate the influence of the 'big there', India, Australia and England, in the working of the global body.
But interestingly the group doesn't include a BCCI representative and neither ECB has one. The group is to be will be headed by Cricket Australia (CA) chairman Earl Eddings and supported by Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ehsan Mani, New Zealand Cricket chairman Greg Barclay, Cricket South Africa president Chris Nenzani, Cricket West Indies president Ricky Skerritt and Cricket Scotland chairman Tony Brian. Interestingly, unlike other previous ICC working groups, this one doesn't have CEOs and member representatives of boards in a fair ratio.
The rift between the governing bodies due to slashing of the BCCI revenues by ICC. BCCI has been demanding an increase as it generates the highest amount of revenue.
"The ICC has been consciously trying to go back to the model that was followed from 1998 to 2016. The ICC's revenues have grown significantly and the BCCI gets a fair share. The other established member boards are struggling with finances and the associates need more funding. That's why it was first suggested in the annual meeting in London in July that ICC should hold its own events every year to generate more revenue but the BCCI disowned the proposal. The management in the ICC believes that previous model was fair than the model suggested by the previous BCCI regime," TOI quoted an ICC source.
However, BCCI, fighting its administrative shenanigans, has been caught off guard. BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, who was nominated by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators to attend the ICC board meeting last week, was not informed about this development.
"There is no BCCI in place at the moment. There is no point in discussing things with CoA chief Vinod Rai and Johri. The man that needs to be spoken to is BCCI president-elect Sourav Ganguly. And that will happen after he assumes office on October 23," a top BCCI official told TOI.