BCCI loses revenue vote, puts India’s participation in the Champions Trophy in doubt

India’s participation in the Champions Trophy came under further jeopardy as the BCCI lost the vote on governance and constitutional changes as well as the revenue model at the latest ICC meeting. The cut-off date for the announcement of the squad for the Champions Trophy was April 25.

The BCCI was all this while waiting for the conclusion of the ICC meet but with the result not going their way, the Indian board has kept the option of withdrawing from the tournament to be held in England open. BCCI lost the vote on governance and constitutional changes by a 1-9 margin with only Sri Lanka voting for them as per reports.

Since the big three revenue model was scrapped, BCCI was keen to get a lion’s share out of ICC’s revenue as they claimed that they contribute to most of the revenue earned by the ICC. But the BCCI could get only two votes in their support as they lost the battle for revenue share by 2-8.

BCCI was earning $570 million till last year and wanted that figure to be unchanged despite the scrapping of the big three model. They were given projected earnings of $290 million with a further $100 as compensatory offer because their revenue was reduced substantially from last year. It was though refused stating they don’t consider that as an offer at all.

“Yes, the votings are over. It was 8-2 in favour of revamped revenue model and 9-1 in favour of constitutional changes,” a senior BCCI functionary present in Dubai told PTI on Wednesday.

“The BCCI has voted against both as we had, in principle, maintained that all these changes are completely unacceptable for us. At this point, we can only say that all options are open for us. We would have to go back to our SGM and apprise the members of the situation,” he added.

The Champions Trophy is just 5 weeks away and there is no official announcement if the defending champions will travel to England to participate in the tournament yet.

“All options are open. They have basically disrespected the Members Participation Agreement that was earlier signed. As of now, the joint secretary will go back and an emergent SGM will be called. He will then apprise the General Body about the developments and an appropriate decision will be taken.”

This is certainly not great news for the Indian fans. Champions Trophy was a hugely anticipated tournament and if India ends up not taking part in it, the tournament will certainly lose its charm.