Lorgat accuses Big Three of cornering ICC events

JOHANNESBURG: Cricket South Africa will not be organising any ICC event till 2023 because they failed to comply with the government policy of having six coloured players in their starting XI, but its CEO, Haroon Lorgat accused the Big Three -- India, England and Australia -- of grabbing all major events.

Lorgat, leading CSA’s plans to launch its T20 Global League, is confident the talent available in the country and focus on cricket rather than glitz will help make it a success.

However, the former ICC CEO is not impressed with the ICC tournament calendar in the 20152023 cycle.

“Every year there is an assessment and last year our assessment was not good and they (assessment committee) prevented us from hosting international events. This April was when the new report came up and it was all clear,” Lorgat told HT here on Thursday.

“That sanction applied to a global event like the World Cup. So, you remember the ICC announced all of these events for the cycle during that period. In fact, I think it’s more the Big Three took all the events. It wasn’t a question of we weren’t ready, it was more the Big Three allocated the events for themselves.”

Lorgat wants to create an identity for the league. “All leagues are good, IPL is phenomenal, Big Bash is doing good, CPL also. But we have to recognise that we have got domestically some of the best players. If you look at the rankings, we have got No 1 in batting, bowling. What different we would like to have is the quality of cricket. We want to focus on the cricket first.”

The inaugural edition will be held in November-December. It will eat into South Africa’s home international calendar but that’s a risk Lorgat is willing to take in his bid to make SA cricket financially viable.

“It’s a real risk. We’re very supportive of ICC with restructuring of international cricket because you got to have a structure that makes sense to the fan. Bilateral without meaning is difficult for a fan to follow.”