When superpower plays victim

BCCI threat to boycott ICC over revenue-sharing is based on alternative facts

that has roughly Rs 5,000 crore in fixed deposits.

So, what do figures like Rs 51.6 crore or even, Rs 148 crore — the two projected loss estimates from the new ICC revenue sharing model — mean for the cash-rich BCCI? A few more numbers: BCCI makes around Rs 60-65 crore from every home international, be it Tests, ODIS or T20s. A few T20 evening outings with friendly neighbours will be enough to tide over the perceived shortfall.

In this context, the ICC’S new revenue model shouldn’t have triggered an apocalyptic reaction. And that’s why the threat to cut ties with the ICC seems like an overreaction. It’s also mildly juvenile since the new model was put to vote at the ICC where the BCCI was the lone voice of dissent. When the game’s superpower has a separatist’s mindset, the sport is sure to suffer.

All the BCCI needs to understand is the importance of diversity and the need to be inclusive. They should have known that the Border-gavaskar Trophy gets eyeballs because India is pitted against the ultra-competitive and immensely skillful cricketers from Australia.

Replay any IPL auction to understand the value of foreign players. Cricket’s biggest money-spinner wouldn’t be the brand it is without Mccullum, Warne, Gayle or Stokes. If isolated from the world, IPL will be just another Syed Mushtaq T20 Trophy, with cheer leaders. India needs to look at Ireland and Afghanistan like FIFA views India. A long-term junior programme, academies, turfs and the under-17 World Cup have come to India because FIFA, for all its ills, believes in sharing. It’s understandable that it is the ICC’S job to take care of world cricket, but the BCCI can help by being less difficult and more accommodative.

If ever cricket needed a sensitive father figure, it is now. West Indies and Zimbabwe are sinking. Pakistan is barely keeping afloat, while South Africa is fighting a mass exodus of players to England. By providing a helping hand to these nations in need, India can save cricket.

Maybe the BCCI wants to flex its muscle and doesn’t feel obliged to groom or help the game grow. That’s the American way of looking at sports. They have thrived in their isolation and have the audacity to call their inter-city sporting contests a World Series. The NBA and NFL are the most successful basketball and football leagues and the competition isn’t between nations. It is a zoo out there as Bulls, Sharks, Raptors, Bucks, Hawks, Eagles play with unquestionable intensity in front of fiercely loyal fans.

Maybe, by Americanising the very English sport, the BCCI plans to avenge the Lords who had an undemocratic hold on cricket for ages. There might be a day when mixed teams representing cities might not just play T20 games but Tests too. The India Blue wouldn’t be in a merchandise shop but in the closet of memorabilia collectors. If that’s the case, the BCCI needs to be unapologetic about its intentions. It can be an unabashed cricket corporate. Greed is great, Gordon Gekko said, but please ask that guy on the roof to stop waving the tricolour. He isn’t the voice of the stadium terraces.

sandeep.dwivedi@expressindia.com