The decision by the International Cricket Council in its meeting last week to carry out a complete constitutional review of the changes brought about by the “Big Three” takeover in 2014 has come as a breath of fresh air. The decision taken last Thursday to dismantle the system of governance proposed by the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) and the CA (Cricket Australia) two years ago has been praised widely.
However, the allay lasted only till yesterday as Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan said no such decision to review the resolutions was ever taken or discussed during the ICC meeting in Dubai.
The BCB boss said the issue has been exaggerated in the media and nothing related to the Big Three ever happened in the meeting.
It was widely reported in the media that BCCI president Shashank Manohar, who is also serving as ICC chairman at the moment, will head the five-man steering group set up to conduct the review, with an aim of putting forward recommendations at the ICC’s annual conference in June.
The ICC through a media release had said the board had “agreed to carry out a complete review of the 2014 resolutions and constitutional changes with a view to establishing governance, finance, corporate and cricketing structures that are appropriate and effective for the strategic role and function of the ICC and all of its members”.
But BCB president Nazmul said he could not understand what particularly is going to change. He rather emphasised that the BCCI decision, to free some percentage of its profit-sharing from the ICC, is being misinterpreted into something else.
“I do not understand what they are planning to change. England and Australia will get the same amount of money from the ICC so there is no change at all. Yes, the BCCI president had said they would free up some percentage (six percent from 22 percent of their profit-sharing) but it is their personal decision, not the ICC board’s. For instance, Bangladesh get 8.7 percent of share from the ICC. Now if the BCB decides to free 0.7 percent, it is the BCB’s own decision. The Big Three have nothing to do here,” Nazmul informed the media at his Dhaka residence yesterday.
Nazmul added that the main agenda of the ICC meeting this time was regarding the neutrality of the ICC chairman. According to Nazmul, the ICC board had discussed to bring changes in the constitution to neutralise the position of the chairman. “There is a conflict of interest when an ICC chairman represents a particular cricket board. Questions about neutrality might get raised here. So that is why a change was made in the constitution. One elected as ICC chairman will have to cut off all ties with his country’s cricket board on the same day. This was the main agenda in the meeting this time around,” Nazmul explained.
Nazmul’s explanation raised many eyebrows given that the ICC media release had clearly mentioned the review of the resolutions. Many believe the denial by the BCB boss is due to his board’s support during the ICC revamp. The BCB had played a vital role by voting for the revamp back in 2014.