It’s back to the drawing board today for the International Cricket Council (ICC) and its controversial proposals to make Test cricket a two-tiered system.
Cricket’s formally-united Big Three – the Board for Cricket Control in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) – will present the seven other full member nations with a set of redrafted “resolutions” around their radical “position paper” at an ICC executive meeting in Dubai today.
The resolutions – five in number – were being talked through the first official meeting of the Finance & Commercial Affairs (F&CA) committee after its “working group”, made up of the heads of the BCCI, Cricket Australia and the ECB, came up with the proposal in a 21-page document that called for a complete overhaul of the ICC’s administration and its revenue distribution.
The first of the proposals to be watered down is expected to be the one pertaining to a two-tier format for Test cricket and the relegation of the bottom two ranked into the ICC Intercontinental Cup. The other proposal, which could be reworked, pertains to a newly formed Executive Committee and its possible expansion from four to five, with a second nominee coming in from the “small seven” as opposed to only one, according to the draft position paper.
As the ICC’s board met for its scheduled quarterly meeting in Dubai, the Big Three were known to be in discussions with six of the seven in order to ensure their support should the proposal go to vote today.
There could be some radical changes to international cricket if the ICC board accepts the proposals.
Enhanced offers
One board chief said the BCCI, ECB and Cricket Australia had been “surrounding people, taking them in. We’ll give you this, we’ll give you that.” Another said that BCCI led the majority of such discussions, their offers being enhanced with every meeting. “Individually, they call every board and offer them something each time,” the chief claimed.
The only vocal objector to the proposal, Cricket South Africa, has been left out of these discussions and the benefits being offered to the rest of the boards. The main negotiations took place on governance issues with FTP agreements – particularly those pertaining to tours by India – being used as “bait”. The resolutions, first expected to be presented in a list of 50-plus points, were later gathered together under five categories.
While in the past governance issues had dominated revenue matters, one of the Big Three officials said yesterday there could be “further discussions rather than negotiations around revenue models” with an attempt to explain how they would work in real terms and the guarantees being offered.
The main boards involved in the talks are the three Asian boards – the Pakistan Cricket Board, the Sri Lanka Cricket Board, and the Bangladesh Cricket Board – who have been left mulling over their options due to various reasons. There has been public protest in Bangladesh, including a crowd gathering of close to 3 000 in Dhaka last Saturday, over the possibility of their cricket board ceding Bangladesh’s Test match status and calendar in the face of the proposals.
A senior Bangladeshi cricket official said: “It is a big thing (to us) this status. In 13 years Bangladesh have managed to win four Test matches. India and New Zealand did not win their first Test till 30 years. So how come these people are now telling Bangladesh that you will need to fight out in the I-Cup to retain your Test status.” Should the relegation issue be diluted from the resolutions, the Big Three may find the leverage they need with the BCB.