Opinion | India is holding back world cricket – it’s time to kick them out of the ICC and start again
The BCCI is doing its best to hinder development; the world should cut India loose, create a new governing body and truly globalise the game
World cricket is a cult and India the dictatorial, megalomaniac cult leader that rules on a platform of financial fear – unsaid threats and glaring looks at those who dare question its motives. There is no subtlety about it. It goes beyond even the “some animals are more equal than others” concept that may fool the gullible of the proletariat into thinking they have a smidgen of rights.
No, when it comes to India and cricket, it’s blatant and unambiguous. India, armed with billions of dollars and more than a billion fans who are able to skew statistics in their favour, has no qualms in saying “we rule world cricket, you do as we say”.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the parent company tasked with ruling the sport within its borders while the International Cricket Council (ICC) is its subsidiary that governs the world on behalf of its masters.
This was made abundantly clear in 2014 when an ICC revamp effectively handed India control of world cricket – and paid them more than anyone else for the privilege – and as recently as May when ICC chief David Richardson was forced to grovel to a bristling India after it dared to publish a SWOT report that concluded what everybody else already knew: that the ICC’s “heavy dependence on revenues and fans from India” highlighted a potential “weakness” within the world body’s ruling mechanisms.
Four years ago, India and wannabe fellow leaders England and Australia forced a reconstruction of the ICC in which the BCCI was given a central leadership role and more money. The ICC’s eight-year cycle running from 2015 to 2023 for televisions rights was expected to generate up to US$3 billion in revenue of which US$2.1 billion would be provided by Indian fans.
