BCCI loses face in crucial ICC meet

The BCCI suffered a massive loss of face after it was comprehensively voted out on the new governance structure and revenue sharing model at the ICC Board Meeting in Dubai on Wednesday.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the richest cricket board in the world, was humbled 1-9 when all full-member nations voted in favour of a change in the governance structure.

The BCCI’s opposition to the more contentious issue – revenue model – was rejected 8-2. Only the Sri Lankan cricket board backed the BCCI.

After the Supreme Court-appointed BCCI representative to the ICC, Amitabh Choudhary, outrightly rejected the additional $100 million payout in revenue on Tuesday, the Indian cricket board was once again given the original option of $290 million – $280 million less than the $570 million the BCCI was to get under the “Big Three” model devised by the then ICC chief N Srinivasan.

The $ 290 million option was a “take it or leave offer,” according to a source, and with the matter being put to vote, it received the backing of eight members. The crushing defeats have certainly dented the BCCI’s reputation as the most influential cricket body in the world.With the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) – entrusted with the task of running the day-to-day affairs of the board – and the BCCI administrators pulling in different directions, other ICC members used the situation to deliver it a softening blow.

That the members ignored and voted en masse in favour of the resolutions even after India’s veiled threat to pull out of the upcoming Champions Trophy, drives home their standing in world cricket at the moment.
A peeved senior BCCI official said that while it was expected that there will be resistance with current dispensation’s bete noire and ICC chairman Shashank Manohar at the helm, they were taken by surprise when Zimbabwe and Bangladesh – two votes the BCCI thought were assured – never came its way.

It is also a sort of embarrassment for the CoA as it was dealing with a lot of member nations and was confident of pulling the vote in India’s favour. The heavy defeat indicates that the CoA failed to read the minds of Nazmul Hasan Papon (Bangladesh), David Peever (Australia) and Haroon Lorgat (South Africa), all of whom came to India to discuss the changes to the ICC constitution.