In a recent decision, the International cricket council (ICC) has decided to form a committee which will act as a watchdog over all private T20 League across the globe. ICC's Chief Operating Officer (COO) Iain Higgins and media rights head Aarti Singh Dabas will most probably steer the committee. The Board of control for cricket in India (BCCI) has strictly said a “no” to this citing the example of Ranji trophy and arguing that just like ICC has no say in other domestic leagues it won’t have any in the IPL.
The committee aims to
● Bring about more control over the many private T20 leagues sprouting around the world.
● Help draw up a uniform policy on how these leagues function.
● Have a say in the format and players policy.
● As a governing body, be seen as a policymaker for the many international cricket boards (full and associate members) who have T20 leagues or will soon have one.
Other countries like Australia, West Indies and Pakistan who have their own T20 Leagues are yet awaited for a response. This idea was touted at the recent Chief Executives Committee meeting of the ICC in Dubai. Here, the BCCI was represented by its CEO Rahul Johri and according to the reports of a few big newspapers after some amount of "backroom lobbying", he has managed to keep ICC at an arm's length for the moment.
ROLE OF MONEY- ICC has yet not given any that might be able to justify their decision. It seems that money is a major issue here. Those who understand how the business works know that the two-month revenue of IPL is more than the annual revenue of the ICC. IPL as the property is very valuable. Tournaments like Ranji have been running for more than 50 years and yet ICC never decided to intervene. So your guess is as correct as mine.
BCCI’s PROBLEM – BCCI has been cornered in several financial and governance matter in the ICC meetings. Thus it would be very interesting to see until when the BCCI will be able to keep ICC away from getting their terms passed. The ICC has always been dominated by the BCCI owing to the humungous amounts of funds that they generate through Indian cricket.
On the aisle side, the current situation is very different. The BCCI is right now at its weakest position. The office bearers are currently left with no power. The COA appointed by the Supreme Court is not as effective as the regular officers used to be. Thus ICC looks at it as an opportunity to make inroads into the BCCI and get as many rules passed as they can without any stiff resistance from the BCCI.
