Expressing serious concern over the proposed reform of the International Cricket Council, the nine chapters of Transparency International (TI), an anti graft global organisation called on the ICC to publish a formal response to the Woolf Report immediately.
The Woolf Report, delivered in 2012 suggested a series of reforms to make cricket’s governance more transparent and better equipped, however, the ICC has not responded formally ti the Woolf recommendations till date, TI said.
“The current proposals bear little or no relation to the principles outlined in the Woolf report, which in itself only represented standard corporate governance practice in many parts of the world,” it said adding “The proposals are notable for ignoring other wider indicators of good governance such as accountability, transparency, participation, consensus, equity and inclusiveness.”
The statement was issued by TI chapters from nine cricket playing countries that includes Australia, Bangladesh, India, Jamaica, Netherlands, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Trinidad & Tobago, and United Kingdom.
“The intention to establish ‘The Big Three’ in a privileged position seems to be an abuse of entrusted power for private gain, giving them disproportionate, unaccountable and unchallengeable authority on a wide variety of constitutional, personnel, integrity, ethics, development and nomination matters,” it said.
The organisation added that it made an initial submission to Lord Woolf and subsequently published its own report on cricket’s governance challenges in 2013, entitled Fair Play.
“Yet cricket’s governance problems and corruption risks go far beyond the on-field players, and include officials, administrators and sponsors, it said adding that the reform proposal has not mentioned on how it will address these salient issues ensuring the future growth of the sports," said the statement.
The proposed changes will create a concentration of power in the big three and there will be no oversight to bring members to account which could lead to the abuse the power rather than serving the best interest of the game, the organisation said.
The organisation's four point proposal includes giving a formal response to the Woolf Report as well as the related de Speville Report, identifying which recommendations it accepts and the reasons for rejecting others, and halt any other significant governance reforms; acknowledge the problems associated with weak governance and related corruption risks within cricket; introduction of independent non-executive directors to the ICC board, as recommended by the Woolf Report; indicating how the so-called “weaker” test-playing countries, as well as the associate and affiliate members of the ICC, will be accommodated in a reformed structure that pays regard to good governance.
It also said TI believes that the ICC should aim to be a model of good governance and transparency for domestic cricket boards, and should act in the best interests of the game of cricket.