BCCI demands its pound of flesh from ICC

The Cricket Board today defended its move to demand a lion's share of financial proceeds earned by the ICC by saying it was a "legitimate right issue" and was also "just and fair".

"This legitimate right issue has been put up before the full members of ICC. It is nothing but a just and fair right that we are asking for. It is not any muscle flexing, but only our legitimate right," BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said here.

"For the first time in the history of the BCCI, as a full member of ICC, this has been put up by President N Srinivasan. He has worked out very good details and very good options," he said.

Patel talked to reporters on the sidelines of the International Cricket Council's announcement of its annual awards.

"President Srinivasan, since last year, was looking into the financial details of the ICC. He has made a private study about what could be the contribution of the BCCI into the revenue stream of ICC. On the basis of that, some formulae have been discussed amongst us. His own acumen as a businessman has also helped us.

"In past it has never been raised (by BCCI or any other member board), so it took some time to discuss and is still under discussion. But we are quite hopeful that result will be absolutely in favour of BCCI," Patel said.

He said unfortunately for the Indian board, this issue had not been addressed in the past.

"I am sorry to say that unfortunately it was not raised earlier by anyone else in the BCCI. But it has been raised now and we are confident that we will get it," he said.

Refusing to divulge any figures that the BCCI was looking up to as its legitimate share, Patel said there were quite a few calculations that need to be worked on.

"Let us keep the amount under wraps. If I say x and if I am entitled to x plus then I will always like x plus. We are discussing range to range and we are quite hopeful," he said.