The International Cricket Council (ICC) yesterday approved its controversial proposal relating to the governance, competition and financial models of the ICC after Cricket South Africa (CSA) turned its back on Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
They voted alongside the so-called big three India, England and Australia at a meeting in Singapore.
CSA, SLC and PCB were against the proposed resolution and were expected to vote against the proposal at yesterday’s meeting but CSA turned their stance at the last minute forcing SLC and PCB to abstain from voting.
“A resolution was put to a vote today and supported by the required majority of the ICC Board, including eight Full Members,” an ICC release said. “Two of the Full Members – Pakistan Cricket Board and Sri Lanka Cricket – abstained in the vote as they felt they needed more time to discuss the amended resolution with their respective Boards.”
“Since this time a set of resolutions have been drafted, negotiated and modified – based on a set of principles agreed by the ICC Board on 28 January – and finalized at the meeting today. There were eight Full Members who were in a position to support the resolution today and the two who abstained have pledged to further discuss the issues with an aim to reaching unanimous approval over the coming weeks,” the ICC statement further said quoting its president Alan Issac.
According to SLC sources, SLC and PCB were requested to vote in favour of the resolution to obtain a unanimous support, after CSA pledged its support minutes prior to yesterday’s meeting, by a top BCCI member, but both boards have requested time to decide as they need a fresh mandate from its membership.
“The scope of the Resolutions presently proposed were substantially changed, for which SLC required a fresh mandate from the Executive Committee and Stakeholders,” SLC said in a statement.
“This was intimated to SLC this morning, the SLC representative at the ICC Board meeting abstained from voting as SLC were unable to obtain such mandate today, and would therefore have to go back to the Executive Committee and stakeholders before voting on the Resolutions. In the above context we will seek to obtain a fresh mandate based on the above in order to express SLC’s stance at the next ICC Board meeting scheduled in April.”
Sri Lanka feared for grave financial repercussions that may have followed had they stuck to their decision and voted against the resolution. And, it took a precautionary measure by abstaining from voting.
SLC maintained a clear stance right through and based on the recommendation of its legal experts, SLC questioned the legality of the proposal that had been rushed to ICC’s board meeting last month.
SLC was of the view that the ‘purported proposals’ were completely against the fundamental principles on which the ICC had been formed and feared that the revised structure would put power in the hands of just three members. SLC was also believed that through the proposed structure a disproportionate large sum of ICC revenue meant for all ten members would be shared among the three members violating the equal revenue-share model that was part of the ICC constitution.
“It’s a sad day for gentleman’s game,” a cricket enthusiast commented on a popular website after ICC announced that the resolution was passed without a hitch. Another wrote ‘R.I.P. Shame on you South Africa,”
According to the passed resolution, BCCI president N. Srinivasan would become the ICC chairman from July this year, while CA chairman Wally Edwards would head a newly-formed Executive Committee, which will report to the ICC Board.
The ECB chairman Giles Clarke will be the head of the finance and Commercial Affairs Committee.
Among the new changes, the Future Tours Programme (FTP) will be replaced by “a series of contractually binding bi-lateral agreements as a matter of urgency so that they can confirm a comprehensive schedule of matches in a Future Tours Programme that will now be extended to 2023.”
The ICC also changed its equal-revenue sharing model to a model where the financial recognition is based primarily on one’s contribution to the game.
“Full Members will gain greater financial recognition based on the contribution they have made to the game, particularly in terms of finance, their ICC history and their on-field performances in the three formats,”
The ICC also said that the proposed World Test Championships would be replaced with the Champions Trophy in 2017 and 2021 in order to strengthen their commercial property.
“It proved impossible to come up with a format for a four-team finals event in Test cricket that fits the culture of Test cricket and preserves the integrity of the format,” the ICC said. “With the ICC Champions Trophy alongside the ICC Cricket World Cup and ICC World Twenty20 and the formats and venues already confirmed for all of these events the ICC has a really attractive package for 2015-23 to take to the market.”
However a Test Cricket Fund will be introduced to help Test playing teams who will be able to sustain a home programme of Test cricket through to 2023.
“The fund will be available to all of the Test playing Members except the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia (CA) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB),” the ICC said.
