Over the top: Rai's stand will boost BCCI in fight against ICC

The response of Vinod Rai, head of the Committee Of Administrators appointed by the Supreme Court to a loaded question on India’s participation in the Champions Trophy, would have been music to BCCI’s mandarins and a dirge to the ICC. At the launch of a biography on Sachin Tendulkar in Mumbai on Friday, Rai said, “We (BCCI and COA) are 100 per cent on the same page”, when asked about the ongoing fracas between the Indian board and the ICC. The BCCI has convened a special general meeting on May 7 to take stock of the debacle at last week’s ICC meeting in Dubai where it was outvoted 2-8 (on governance issues) and 1-9 (on revenue sharing), bringing cricket to the precipice of a major crisis.

Foremost among matters to be debated at the SGM will be whether India should pull out from the Champions Trophy as the BCCI threatened after its demand for status quo on revenue sharing was summarily dismissed. The BCCI and COA have not shared a particularly happy relationship. Resistance from old hands in the Indian board at speedy implementation of the Justice Lodha panel recommendations has often had them at loggerheads. It is believed that this emboldened the ICC, under independent chairman Shashank Manohar, to rescind an earlier agreement and halve India’s share of revenue after BCCI’s representatives refused to budge from the original figure.

Rai’s unequivocal support for BCCI queers the pitch for the ICC: what seemed a vulnerable situation ripe to exploit, could in fact become the rallying point for the Indian establishment cricket at large. Whether the COA has any jurisdiction in negotiations between ICC and BCCI is unclear. But irrespective, it wouldn’t want to take a position that could be perceived as against India’s interest. In these times of hyper-nationalism, the BCCI has a ready card to play with. Only some months earlier, most Indian cricket fans wanted the BCCI to be taught a lesson and supported the Justice Lodha panel’s recommendations. That angry mood seems to be undergoing a churn.

The current imbroglio is being seen as an attempt to scuttle India’s clout. More, of course, is how the playing fraternity sees the conflict. In the absence of a players association, this is unknown, though BCCI officials say that they have unstinted support. Obviously there will be serious repercussions for BCCI if it does boycott the Champions Trophy. This includes debarment from ICC events till 2023, and overseas players not being given No Objection Certificates by their respective boards to play in the IPL. But that may not necessarily stymie flush-with-money BCCI. A bitter lesson for the BCCI in the current controversy is that most allies deserted it in last week’s meeting. Yet this is a pyrrhic victory for the ICC.

Cricket boards are known to turn coat for money, as they did this time. For some more, they could take a U-turn again. Since almost 75 per cent of the viewership and finance comes from this country, India could aim to be a full-blown cricket ecosystem in itself, a la baseball, basketball and NFL in the United States. The likelihood of two IPL seasons in a year is not far-fetched. Players and cricket boards could also be seduced with huge pay-outs to renege on contracts for other events too. A gross thought, but not inconceivable. What I find peculiar is the ICC’s methods in the crisis. First came an ad hoc offer of $100 million extra to India. On what parameter was this figure reached? It was withdrawn after BCCI officials sought to buy time on some pretext, but now one believes still exists as a bargaining chip! Cavalier, to say the least. More pertinently, why could the ICC not have deferred the resolution till after the CT was played? A ‘my way or the highway’ position in such a delicate situation almost seems like wanting to settle an old grudge rather than resolving the issue.

Fortunately, there is time till May 7 for hot heads on either side to cool down, look at the situation calmly, with a strong, collaborative vision for the future. A compromise should be aggressively pursued.  The crux of the problem, in my opinion, is that what should essentially have been an exercise in financial math, some give and take to find a workable formula has been overrun by egos. Just not cricket!