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The BCCI is playing a dangerous and ultimately
pointless game of brinkmanship with the ICC as it bids
to capture the global telecast rights for all major
tournaments till 2015.
The ICC meetings in Mumbai on Sunday and Monday will
decide whether they become the sole power player in
world cricket.
The enormous amount of money that has flowed into
their coffers has made the BCCI drunk with power. It
feels the rest of the cricket world must now dance to
its tune and that it can—if worst comes to worst—break
away from the world body and take the Asian nations
(and perhaps one or two others) with it. That would be
suicidal for the world of cricket.
The ICC constitution stipulates that only an
established media house is qualified to bid for the
hugely lucrative TV rights. But the Indian board with
its enormous financial clout believes it is in a
position to overturn the very constitution of which is
has been part and parcel.
Behind all this pent up anger is the way the BCCI
perceives the Champions Trophy—run entirely by the
ICC—has been thrust on it due to the previous Dalmiya
regime agreeing to host it.
Treasurer Lalit Modi has become the sounding board for
all complaints against the world body and ever since
the tournament opened earlier this month he has been
sounding off.
It is indeed strange that Board president Sharad Pawar
is keeping mum as he publicly buried the hatchet with
the ICC regarding the conditions of hosting the
tournament in New Delhi back in April.
Now Modi and others are bitterly voicing their
objections and the main one is that the ICC has taken
the power out of their hands as they are running the
show.
Journalists around the country heaved a sigh of relief
when they were informed a few months ago that the ICC
and not the BCCI would be handling all media
accreditations.
For years now local staging associations in India have
been making life miserable for journalists on the eve
of international matches, forcing them to run pillar
to post, all for that precious piece of plastic
lamination.
Somebody needs to tell the Board that power without
responsibility is a recipe for anarchy. While millions
of dollars—there is now even talk of hitting the
billion-dollar mark—have flowed into their coffers,
can any official in the BCCI honestly claim they have
improved the infrastructure for cricket in India?
Spectators are still treated like cattle in Indian
stadia where facilities would put the poorest nations
to shame. And yet all we have been hearing from Modi
and co. is the power, money and clout that Indian
cricket wields.
For sure for years the ICC was treated like a
plaything of England and Australia who retained veto
power till 1993. It is all very well for the Asian
bloc to now pay them back in their own coin. But does
all this point-scoring actually benefit world or
Indian cricket?
Next month the BCCI will have a grand ground-breaking
ceremony in Mumbai as it finally inaugurates a full
fledged office—after 77 years of existence! It still
does not have a proper e-mail address, website or full
time media manager. And the Indian team still
languishes somewhere in the middle of the Test and ODI
rankings.
So where is all that money being earned being poured
into? Is it still stuck in the BCCI’s bank accounts,
locked up in fixed deposits as it has done for
decades?
These are questions the Indian cricket establishment
has to answer before it continues to flex its muscles
like a bully.
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More Views by Gulu Ezekiel
