Mighty India entitled of having a 'little say', says former Australian captain Ponting
Ricky Ponting said that mighty India is entitled to have a 'little say' in ICC.
Wellington: Australian legend Ricky Ponting says India deserves a "little say" in international cricket being the "powerhouse nation" of the game but also hopes that the concerned stakeholders would strike a balance in the near future.
The ICC recently announced wide-ranging changes to how the sport will be run, including handing bulk of the power to the game's 'big three' India, Australia and England.
"That's probably right, but that's the lay of the land. They're the powerhouse nation of the game and being as powerful as they are, they probably to a certain degree deserve a say in what happens. It's a bit of a touchy subject to handle," Ponting was quoted as saying by 'Sunday Star-Times'.
"It seems like Australia have a series against India every year. That's a great source of revenue, and why everyone wants Tests against India, because of the TV revenue. Those tours are pretty important."
"But it's got to be a bit of a sharing-type thing. You can't just have a couple of nations that are really strong, powerful and wealthy while the others are struggling.
"It's a real balancing act for players and administrators at the moment with the popularity of the Twenty20 game."
The former captain suggested the demands on modern players are too high, forcing many to make career decisions based on money.
"I think a lot of it's in the right direction. The tests and one-day championships add context in every game, when I played I always felt there were too many meaningless games of one-day cricket. That's starting to look after itself a little bit now," he said.
"But I still think the playing schedule is too hard on the players. Yes they're paid a lot of money, but the international programmes now seem like they're getting more tightly packed and if you look at domestic tournaments as well, the Big Bash is growing over here, the IPL is getting bigger and bigger and is lucrative for the players, but some serious decisions have to be made by players."