Let's Save Cricket! Cancel the latest draft to "revamp" ICC

We, the die hard cricket fans believe that the latest draft proposal by ICC which has clearly increased the control the three cricket boards (BCCI, CA, ECB) exercise on cricket, which is done not at the best interest of cricket and it’s development but at the best interest of the financial well-being of the aforementioned cricket controlling bodies, could bring calamitous consequence on small cricket playing countries like Sri Lanka, New Zealand, West Indies and the Associate Nations.

It is perplexing to have such a draft proposed which practically gives these three cricket boards the ‘Veto’ power, during a time in which the Security Council of the United Nations has come under severe criticism and scrutiny for being a Council reigned by only a selected few countries, which exercise iniquitous control over the rest of the world, and has thus created factions among countries.

The Key Proposals of the drafts are,

• New executive committee (ExCo) to be set up with permanent memberships for BCCI, CA, ECB, to override all other committees
• Promotion and relegation in Test cricket, with exceptions made in the cases of BCCI, CA, ECB
• ICC to be delinked from FTP arrangements, with bilateral agreements only taking over
• New finance model of ICC revenue distribution
• Key positions in ICC – ICC chairman, chairmen of ExCo and finance & commercial affairs committee – to be nominees of BCCI-CA-ECB
• Reinstatement of Champions Trophy in 2017 and 2021 in place of the World Test Championship

In an era where many cricket boards find difficulties in breaking even, thanks to the mercenary cricket boards around whom the money is centered, ceding the power to three cricket boards to override and dominate the rest of the cricket world is done clearly considering the financial benefits of the three cricket boards.

What makes these three cricket boards superior to the others? The quality of cricket they play or their on-field accomplishments? No, South Africa the current top ranking Test Team, and Sri Lankan the Number One T20 side, and the West Indies the defending World T20 champions have all been thrown into limbo.

So it’s no brainer to say that the financial strength of these Cricket Boards had been the only criteria that sifted these three out of the rest of the ICC full members.

The Major Share (Lion’s share) of the revenue being pumped into the three cricket boards will exacerbate the financial crisis sustained by most of the other cricket boards. The once great West Indies reached rock bottom mainly due to their financial instability. Sri Lanka cricket amidst their valiant performances on-field have suffered severe bankrupt. Zimbabwe, although replete with a lot of promising talents is unable to invite teams for cricket due to financial constraints.

The prejudice of allowing the three to be exempted from promotion and relegation of test cricket is nothing more than a farce. This could have been a rational proposal had the teams exempted been chosen based on their performance. South Africa even though they are the best test team in the world being overlooked leads to serious qualms regarding the goals of ICC. India’s test record leaving apart their heroics at home has been abysmal. How could a country that cannot even prevent a whitewash in overseas test be delegated the luxury of an exemption?

Even though not spoken out, any average intelligent cricket fan would know that the BCCI exerts a lot of financial threats both on ICC and its neighbors. The match fixing debacle that surrounded the various premiere leagues in South Asia have had their origins in India. Even though the president of the BCCI suffered an allegation of fixing matches, the BCCI made no real effort to weed the poisonous pathogens breeding within the board and instead did a charade by hand picking some scapegoats to satisfy both the media and the general public. So how as fans are we expected to support the ceding of power to BCCI?

As cricket fans we need to join hands to shield the game we love and cherish from being turned into a harlot, just to make some money. The totalitarianism within ICC would eventually lead to the demise of the game.