Revealed: BCCI had threatened to form second ICC over restructuring

BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel revealed that the BCCI had asked the ICC to give it proper importance, else India would be forced to form a council of its own. Harish Kotian reports.

Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Sanjay Patel on Saturday revealed that India had threatened to form another International Cricket Council if its proposal for restructuring of the ICC was not accepted by the other full members.

“We told them that if India is not getting its proper due and importance then India might be forced to form a second ICC of its own,” revealed Patel, during the Sports Journalists’ Federation of India’s 37th National Convention in Hyderabad.

The ICC restructuring will see India playing a major role in the daily working of the governing body, and also guarantees it a major chunk of the revenues.

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Patel reasoned that such a move was necessary since India is responsible for generating nearly 70 percent of the ICC revenues.

He pointed out that Narayanaswami Srinivasan, the former BCCI president, had appointed a private agency to study the revenue model of the ICC and was supported by the cricket Boards of Australia and England.

“India is more or less responsible for 68 to 72 percent of the ICC gross revenue but, unfortunately, so far we were getting three to four per cent of it. Srinivasan asked a private agency to study the model and find out who is responsible for what amount, and we found that India is responsible for 72 per cent and ICC worked out that it was 68 per cent.

“We had a meeting with the ICC officials in Dubai and we informed that 68 to 72 percent is not an issue but it was clear that the majority of the income is coming from India, so why should India take only three to four percent.

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"After a lot of deliberations, and Australia and England also joined us, and from the projected 2.8 billion dollars approximately for the cycle from 2016 to 2023, we worked out that India should get 24 percent, which roughly works out to approximately 700 to 800 million dollars,” he added.

Patel also confirmed that Srinivasan, who was suspended as BCCI chairman by the Supreme Court following the match-fixing saga in IPL 6, will take over as the first chairman of the revamped ICC structure.

“Mr Srinivasan is going. There is no Supreme Court bar on him. Both of us are going to Melbourne. In the last four months we have settled [the issue] with all the full members of the ICC and convinced them about the new structure and the new financial model of the ICC which would be followed in the coming years,” he said.

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Patel stated Srinivasan is not involved in any wrongdoing in the match-fixing saga that rocked the IPL and will come out clean in the inquiry conducted by the Justice Mudgal Committee, appointed by the Supreme Court to probe the report.

“As far as my personal view is concerned, Srinivasan is not guilty, but we have to follow the laws of this country and we are abiding this thing. We are hopeful that things will be over by August end.

“I already mentioned in Supreme Court in two of my affidavits that we will give full co-operation, which they mentioned in their report. We will provide full co-operation in the second commission also because we have nothing to hide,” he said.

The BCCI secretary also revealed that India is also trying to get the ICC headquarters shifted to the country from Dubai.

“On the topic of moving the ICC headquarters, I would like to say that India is also a contender. By doing this, probably India’s prominence and leadership in the field of cricket will be at great length and will be beneficial to our boys,” he added.