‘Don’t fight BCCI, let cricket prevail’
Only the hawks in the Indian Board want a Champions Trophy boycott while all others want the feud with ICC to end
The BCCI SGM on Sunday could well be meaningless if news emerging from a meeting between Board officials and the state bodies is to be believed. And this is the BCCI will send a team to play the Champions Trophy next month, and it looks a sane decision.
As reported earlier in HT, calls for BCCI to name the Champions Trophy team have been growing louder with the Committee of Administrators blasting certain BCCI officials’ negative approach.
HAWKS AND DOVES
The hawks -- Himachal Pradesh, Saurashtra, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala – who have whipped up frenzy within BCCI in favour of a pullout have been ticked off by other members as well as a Union Minister, in whose name they had been collecting ‘boycott’ votes ahead of the SGM.
The doves include some top BCCI officials and acting president CK Khanna – he has confirmed India’s participation – on their side. Another seven-eight associations too want the team to go and they have their reasons.
Apart from the over $500 million (India’s revenue share, hosting fees and prize money in the 2015-2023 cycle) BCCI stands to lose in case of a boycott, it could also be heavily penalised if ICC pursues a legal case. Then, there is the question of image and how history will judge India.
BCCI ON WEAK LEGAL GROUND
Documents HT have accessed suggest BCCI is on weak legal ground. Late in April, the advice of Herbert Smith Freehills, a law firm headquartered in London, was sought about BCCI’s rights under Members Participation Agreement (MPA), exercising which the BCCI hawks have threatened to pull out of ICC events like Champions Trophy.
It has said BCCI has limited options to prevent ICC from amending the 2014 constitution (that gave India a larger share in revenue and governance).
At best, BCCI can approach the MPA Dispute Resolution Committee for damages. However, the Dispute Committee, comprising three members, could easily vote against BCCI.
One of the members will be from IBC, the commercial arm of ICC, while another, the panel chairman, will be appointed only after the approval of the IBC.
If the law firm’s advisory is correct, then whoever signed the MPA on behalf of the Indian board needs to be hauled up for doing a poor job.
Over the past two days, former cricketers have been expressing their opinion in favour of participation. The CoA had blasted BCCI for ignoring cricketers’ interests. Imagine the butt of joke and object of hatred India cricketers might become if this standoff continues with cricket suffering eventually.
Historically, most BCCI presidents have avoided being cocky. With no one in the ICC backing the Indian board, it can ill-afford being that now. A long-drawn legal battle will anyway hurt everyone. It can also irk the Supreme Court. Committee of Administrators, CK Khanna and other top officials realise this.
It won’t be wrong to suggest that ICC chairman, Shashank Manohar, has perhaps given international cricket a lifeline. More importantly, he has given a lease of life to countries like Ireland, Nepal and Afghanistan whose share the BCCI hawks were reducing to fill other boards’ coffers.
However, for some of the BCCI hawks, Manohar is a back-stabber.