BCCI sends team, admits blunder
Board SGM clears India for Champions Trophy, officials admit focus on revenue over governance was a big mistake
NEWDELHI: The BCCI Special General Meeting (SGM) on Sunday unanimously decided to send the India team for next month’s ICC Champions Trophy, deciding to avoid any confrontation with the ICC. Most at the SGM felt any legal tussle with the ICC should be avoided.
“India will participate in the Champions Trophy. There is no pulling out. The squad will be announced on Monday,” said senior Board official Rajeev Shukla.
“Acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary has been authorised to renegotiate the revenue model with ICC,” he said. “Our approach is to try and resolve through dialogue rather than being confrontational.”
However, the Board admitted it had blundered by focusing too much on the revised revenue model and ignored the changes being brought about in the ICC’s governance model.
“We ignored larger issues contained in the governance model,” said Committee of Administrators head Vinod Rai, who had apprised state associations of this on Saturday. “It was something the state bodies weren’t aware of.”
Amitabh Choudhary admitted they had got it wrong. “Yes, he (Rai) is right. We did not focus on the right goals.”
For example, the ICC board had decided to include more members in its Board – Afghanistan, Ireland, four directors, including a woman – and give them votes. It also gives the ICC chairman (Shashank Manohar at present) a vote.
“We wanted to oppose this. It dilutes our vote. We lost 9-1 this time. With the addition of these votes, we’ll lose 16 or 17-1. We wanted ICC to make them associate directors without a vote,” Rai told HT on Sunday.
The CoA had written an 11-page letter to state bodies explaining this, most of it dedicated to governance with just two-and-a-half pages on revenue. The changes approved by the ICC Board also empowers a members’ committee to decide on the eligibility of a national board’s representative attending ICC meetings, further diluting BCCI’s say.
TOLD IN ADVANCE
Before Choudhary and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary went to Dubai, they met the CoA in Mumbai and were told to focus on governance. “We told them we can easily recover the money we are losing (R1000 crore) through bilateral series. But we shouldn’t mess up on governance,” explained Rai. “With power in governance, we will have clout and maybe can bargain on money. Governance is a principled agreement.”
The CoA said BCCI had the support of four boards on governance -- Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and West Indies, which would have been enough to block it. But BCCI’s focus on money seems to have swayed them to change stand.
The CoA found out on Saturday that this had not been explained to the state bodies. A state association official told HT, “We weren’t explained. Before the ICC meeting, it was all focused on revenue. We missed it.”