Thu, Jan 30, 2014 page19

• Cricket set for changes as world body negotiates deal for sport’s governance

  TROPHY REPRIEVE: The Champion’s Trophy is to make a return and Test fixtures are to be sorted out bilaterally as the future tours program was ended

  • AFP, LONDON
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  World cricket was set for a shake-up after the International Cricket Council (ICC) gave “unanimous support” for “principles” to change its structure and governance.

  However, just after the ICC presented a united front following the first day of a two-day board meeting at its Dubai headquarters on Tuesday, South Africa broke ranks.

  Prior to the meeting, Cricket South Africa (CSA) had opposed a leaked draft proposals designed to give the sport’s most financially powerful nations, the “big three” of India, England and Australia a greater say in the running of the world game.

  And after Tuesday’s talks concluded, CSA president Chris Nenzani said their backing in Dubai would need endorsement from his own board.

  “Our position will be subject to full consideration by our board and other stakeholders,” Nenzani said.

  The section of the leaked plan that arguably provoked the greatest criticism, namely the big three being spared relegation in any new two-division Test set-up because of their commercial importance, was rejected by the ICC.

  It even indicated the likes of Ireland might join the existing 10 Test nations, but did not provide any details.

  “There will be an opportunity for all members to play all formats of cricket on merit, with participation based on meritocracy; no immunity to any country, and no change to membership status,” the ICC said.

  The statement was clear though in signaling the end of the proposed World Test Championship. Its delayed launch was supposed to happen in England in 2017.

  It has been replaced by the reprieved one-day Champions Trophy, a more commercial and broadcast-friendly proposition.

  The “mini World Cup” was spared after a successful edition in England last year. Plans to bolster the positions of the big three within the ICC include the formation of a new five-man executive committee, with three seats reserved for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the England and Wales Cricket Board and Cricket Australia.

  Meanwhile the ICC board agreed to discontinue the centralized Future Tours Program, designed to ensure the 10 leading countries hosted and toured one another during an eight-year span. Instead there will be a return to bilateral agreements between nations. These will run from 2015 to 2023 in common with the ICC’s next commercial rights cycle.

  And in a change to the leaked plan, South Africa were included as recipients in a Test cricket fund, which will now be distributed by the big three to the other seven leading nations, where the five-day game often struggles for support.

  The often cash-strapped West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) welcomed the revamp.

  A WICB statement forecast it would receive a 100 percent revenue increase on the previous eight-year cycle, which ends this year.

  It added that as tours of the Caribbean by India, England and Australia were the most commercially viable to stage, reverting to bilateral agreements would give the WICB “greater opportunity to enhance its financial position to the benefit of West Indies cricket.”

  Tuesday’s ICC statement said a further meeting had been scheduled for next month to work out the details of the new structure.

  Nevertheless, ICC president Alan Isaac said what had already been “unanimously supported” emphasized the “primacy of Test cricket.”

  According to the New Zealander, it also meant that “for the first time in cricket’s history, participation will be based entirely on meritocracy.”

  That ICC used the words “unanimous support” indicates no formal vote took place in a meeting lasting several hours.

  There were reports the BCCI, the financial powerhouse which generates 80 percent of ICC revenue on the back of the immense fanaticism for cricket in India, had threatened to quit ICC events if yet more money and authority did not come its way.

  The ICC appeared to bow to the inevitable on Tuesday in speaking of the “BCCI taking a central leadership responsibility.”

  Meanwhile, Isaac insisted he had “encouraged” the big three to devise their position papers, but had been disappointed by a leak that led to “unwarranted” criticism of their motives.

  “These leading cricket nations have worked tirelessly to produce a document which provided the basis for the past few weeks of extremely constructive discussions,” he said. “Over the coming weeks we can be increasingly confident in achieving consensus.”
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