‘ROLLING BACK REVENUE WILL BE ICC’S BREACH OF CONTRACT’
The BCCI on Tuesday decided to exercise its rights at the ICC meeting at the month end to safeguard the 2014 ICC revenue and governance model.
The Big Three plan of 2014 guarantees BCCI the lion’s share of global revenues and gives it a big say in administration alongside the England and Australia boards in the 2015-2023 cycle.
In a two-hour Special General Meeting (SGM) held here and attended by top Board officials — acting president CK Khanna, joint secretary Amitabh Chaudhary and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry as well as BCCI CEO Rahul Johri — the members decided to oppose ICC’s new constitution that seeks to reduce India’s share in revenue.
“The ICC is breaching the contract. The BCCI has been honouring bilateral commitments on Future Tours Programme (FTP) over the past two years only on account of the 2014 revenue model. If ICC changes it now, it will be breaching the contract and stabbing BCCI in the back,” said a BCCI source. “The board hasn’t played Pakistan only due to political reasons. BCCI reserves its rights to act under the Members Participation Agreement (MPA).”
It means India can pull out of the Champions Trophy, starting in England on June 1, as well as take legal recourse if ICC doesn’t rescind its roll back plans. The SCM also felt the biggest obstacle in BCCI’s path is ICC chairman Shashank Manohar, who is pushing for a more equitable distribution of revenues. “The Board officials agreed they will fight tooth and nail to protect BCCI’s interests,” added the source.
Already, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are said to have shown interest in backing India.
The BCCI seems to be on a strong wicket as it needs only 1/3rd of members to say yes.
The SGM also ratified the payments to former women cricketers, as announced on April 12. There was uncertainty due to differences between the Committee of Administrators (CoA) and the Board officials. The BCCI doubled the cash award for Indian cricketers for their series win over Australia from ~50 lakh to 1 crore.