Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are likely to oppose sweeping changes in the ICC as the governing body’s executive board meeting began in Dubai on Tuesday.
Before the meeting, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Zaka Ashraf told private television channels in Pakistan that all four boards “have one stance and we will stick to our stance”.
The three richest cricket boards of India, England and Australia have drafted a radical position paper in an apparent bid to get more powers in all the administrative and financial matters of the ICC.
“I will vote for Pakistan and whatever is in Pakistan’s interests,” Ashraf said.
“We have to see what is in our interests when we vote. Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka, we all have one stance.”
The draft has been widely criticised by former Test cricketers and ICC officials Ehsan Mani, Malcolm Gray and Malcolm Speed.
South Africa was the first to openly criticise the paper citing the ‘big three’ – Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia (CA) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), for not following correct consultation procedures within the ICC.
Cricket South Africa termed the proposals as fundamentally flawed.
Paul Marsh, head of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations, termed the proposals as disturbing, saying they would broaden disparities between cricket’s rich and poor.
In case the big three get stiff opposition in Tuesday’s meeting, the draft might not be tabled for consideration because – to get any special resolution passed – it would require the backing of eight out of the full 10 members.
Officials from the BCCI, ECB and CA reportedly first presented the document to other countries at a meeting this month, with ICC officials even having limited knowledge of the proposals.
The proposed reforms would likely revise or abandon the Future Tours Program which guarantees smaller nations regular series against the big three sides.
A 21-page document from the ICC’s influential financial and commercial affairs committee proposes that a new four-member executive committee be set up, with three places taken by the rich and powerful Indian, English and Australian boards. They would decide on the fourth member.
The position paper also recommends the troubled Test Championship, set for introduction in 2017, be scrapped and the limited-overs Champions Trophy be retained in its place.
Apparently the four opposing members are also not in favour of promotion-relegation system, as suggested in the draft. That would establish a reduced eight-country top tier for Test cricket from 2015, but with India, England and Australia immune from relegation because of “the importance of those markets and teams to prospective ICC media rights buyers”.
The document argues that cricket, especially Test cricket, is often not financially viable outside of the big three countries.
