Kolkata: Hopes of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in changing the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) stance on the revenue sharing plans and governance structure were dealt with a body blow after the international body voted against the same on Wednesday calling for a change in the revenue and governance system.
The first day of the two-day ICC Board meeting in Dubai saw both the restructured revenue model and the change in the governance system put up to be voted for or against by the members.
The Indian cricket board lost the vote on the ‘governance and constitutional changes’ by a whopping 1-9 margin and the vote on the revenue model, which was even more important saw the BCCI losing out on a 2-8 margin. Sri Lanka was the only country that voted for the BCCI.
A senior BCCI functionary present in Dubai told the news agency PTI, “Yes, the votings are over. It was 8-2 in favour of revamped revenue model and 9-1 in favour of constitutional changes,”
“The BCCI has voted against both as we had, in principle, maintained that all these changes are completely unacceptable for us. At this point, we can only say that all options are open for us. We would have to go back to our SGM and apprise the members of the situation” he further added.
From sources we also learn that after the BCCI rejected an additional 100 million payout in revenue, it was given the option of USD 290 million which is a USD 280 million cut from the USD 570 million that India was getting till last year.
With the current scheme of things, it is very evident that the BCCI isn’t at all pleased with the way things have progressed so far. Also, there’s a high chance of them pulling out of the upcoming Champions Trophy which would result in the loss of a lot of revenue for the ICC as India is one of the most followed cricket teams in the world.
(With inputs from PTI)