India within rights to skip Champions Trophy, says Sunil Gavaskar

The Indian cricket Board is again on the path of confrontation with the International Cricket Council, and unless the issue is resolved within days, the BCCI could take the drastic step of pulling out of the ICC Champions Trophy in England starting on June 1. Former India skipper, Sunil Gavaskar, believes India is within its rights to invoke the Members Participation Agreement (MPA), which was part of the 2014 deal, and pull out of the Champions Trophy.

“If they go strictly by the book, when the 2014 model came into being, I think with that legal agreement, they are entirely within their rights if they decide to withdraw from the tournament,” Gavaskar told NDTV. “The agreement that was there in 2014 has been completely overlooked. I don’t think we should forget that.”

He questioned the sanctity of the latest revamp. “The thing is, if the 2014 model has been overlooked, maybe you can overlook the 2017 model also in a couple of months. That is also entirely possible because in this world of constantly changing loyalties and constant changing friends, anything can happen,” Gavaskar told the TV channel.

He brushed aside concerns among some cricket officials that the BCCI would be isolated. Gavaskar said IPL paid almost five times the money foreign players, barring the big stars, get for playing in their domestic competitions. And the spike in TV rights every time India toured meant other Boards can ill-afford to keep India out. When India tour, the money doubles, trebles, quadruples, I don’t exactly know by how much. So, there is no way India can be isolated.”