Everybody knows that the ICC need to sort out Zimbabwean cricket at the moment. But there is another test playing nation they need to pull their weight over. And that country is…….. India.
Fair enough, there are no financial problems in the Indian game, their players aren’t leaving in droves, they’re not getting the government to have former players arrested and they’re not dividing the game along racial grounds.
But the BCCI are not acting with the best interests of cricket. They are acting in the best interests of their sponsors.
The BCCI do not want the game to develop. They want to play Australia, England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka more than every other team.
At the moment, they are the only test team to never tour Bangladesh for a test series. They played there for the inagural test for Bangladesh in November 2000, but have not been since. They are also the only test team to have never hosted Bangladesh.
The interesting thing is; India were the main supporters of Bangladesh’s application for full membership of the ICC. It is now clear that India’s reasons for that were not for the development of the game, but for increasing Asian dominance of the ICC.
Is the Asian dominance of the ICC a bad thing? Not automatically. But it is a bad thing if they are not supporting the development of the game. A sport based around ten teams is not a global sport.
Is the Asian dominance of the ICC deserved? No. OK, so they have more test nations than any other region, but what about below test level?
Europe has more associate members and more affiliate members of the ICC than Asia.
There was no Asian non test team in the 2003 World Cup, and there will be none in the 2007 World Cup. Europe has produced 3 qualifiers for the next world cup, and the Americas two. Africa produced two for the last world cup.
And what is the BCCIs record on development of the game? There is only one word for it. Crap.
The BCCI were the main force behind the postponement of the 2006 Asia Cup, thus denying development money for the UAE and Oman. They said their schedule was too hectic, with a tour to Pakistan and a visit by England. But why have a tour to Pakistan just two years after the previous one?
The answer to that is money. The BCCI see big fat dollar signs in front of their eyes, and decided to chase those, rather than help the devlopment of the game.
The Asian Cricket Council do a great job at developing the game, and their membership is growing quicker than that of the European Cricket Council. But the BCCI are not helping.
India and Pakistan have recently announced that they will start playing each other at neutral venues again. But will ODI status team Canada be invited to make it a tri-series if they play in Toronto? Of course not. Canada are not a money spinning team.
The BCCI have now said that they do not want to take part in the ICC Champions Trophy in future. Guess what the ICC do with the money raised from that tournament? That’s right, they put it towards development of the game.
The BCCIs latest attempt to stimmy development of the game is their problem with Twenty20 cricket.
First, the organisers of the 2010 Commonwealth games in Delhi wanted to have a Twenty20 tournament as part of the games. Surely such a tournament would have been popular? Well, probably yes. But remember that the BCCI wouldn’t have made any money from it. So the BCCI refused to sanction a tournament if it was a Twenty20 tournament.
A succsesfully run Commonwealth Games cricket tournament could have meant the chance to get cricket back in the Olympic games for the first time since 1900. This would have increased exposure of the game, and also increased the amount of international class cricket grounds in developing nations, as every host city of the Olympics is obligated to build venues for all sports. But the BCCI squandered that oppurtunity, because they are more interested in money than developing the game.
And now the ICC have said that they wish to have a Twenty20 World Championship. Surely the BCCI will jump at this chance to take part in a major interntational tournament? Of course not. Because Twenty20 isn’t important, apparantly.
One word for that: Rubbish.
Everybody is aware that Twenty20 cricket is the best oppurtunity to spread the game to new frontiers and to broaden it’s appeal. Everybody that is except the BCCI. Well maybe they are, but as I have already said, the BCCI are not interested in devloping the game.
But what can the ICC do?
Well there is one ICC tournament that the BCCI certainly can not live without. And that’s the World Cup. It gives the most exposure to their sponsors, and even though they may not make as much money themselves from it, they will gain the chance to make more money from sponsorship deals.
So, the ICC should put it’s foot down and say to the BCCI, if you don’t want to play in two of our tournaments, then you can’t play in the others.
I doubt the potential risk of a split in the game would be caused by that, as no country would want to miss out on the official world cup.
So come on ICC. Do something. Look at your own mission statement:
“As the international governing body for cricket, the International Cricket Council will lead by promoting the game as a global sport, protecting the spirit of cricket and optimising commercial opportunities for the benefit of the game.”
Note two things from that….. “promoting the game”, and “optimising commercial opportunities for the benefit of the game.”.
Are the BCCI helping you towards those goals? I think the answer is clearly in the negative.
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Posted by andrewnixon
