Too early to talk about Champions Trophy withdrawal, hints Amitabh Choudhary

The news of India boycotting the ICC Champions Trophy has been bothering many in the recent past. The Supreme Court has appointed Amitabh Choudhary as the BCCI representative for the ICC meeting scheduled to be held of April 24. Choudhary, in a recent conversation, had made it clear that the agenda of the board is to ensure that the interests of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are safeguarded. The meeting will be about the current ‘Big Three’ revenue model of the ICC.

As per the current revenue model, the boards of India, Australia, and England get the maximum share of profits from the ICC revenues as compared to the other members. This is due to the fact that the most revenues are generated from these countries and hence the name ‘big three’.

In the recent times, there has been opposition to the existing system and the ICC is pondering over an equal distribution of the revenues. This has not gone down well with the BCCI officials and some reports suggested that India might pull out of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 to show their protest against the new proposed system.

However, Amitabh Choudhary, as per the quotes in Cricketnext, revealed that it is too early to say that India will pull out of the tournament. Also, he said that the board officials will go to the meeting with an open mind and hope to convince the ICC to continue with the existing system.

“Ideally we would want ICC to accept our proposal and defer a decision on the financial structure till June. But if that does not happen, whatever decision we take will be keeping in mind the best interest of the BCCI and Indian cricket. We will be going to the meeting with an open mind,” quoted Choudhary.

“Too early to speculate on those lines (boycotting Champions Trophy). We have taken the decision at the SGM to ask the ICC to continue with the current model till June and that is all I would like to comment on at present,” he added further.

The Supreme Court had appointed a Committee of Administrators (CoA) to govern the BCCI. When asked if the board and the CoA have discussed the issue of boycotting Champions Trophy, he noted that there is no provision to pull out of a single ICC event (Champions Trophy in this case). If a team pulls out of one event, it has to pull out from all events.

“According to the rule, you either pull out of all ICC events or none. There is no concept of pulling out of just one event. But yes, that step has not been discussed yet,” he said.

Shashank Manohar, the current ICC head, and the former BCCI chief, has already noted that the change in revenue will take place and the issue is not ‘debatable’. However, the BCCI officials feel it will be unfair on their part to have an equal distribution of the revenues. One of the senior BCCI officials elaborated this case with an example.

He quoted, “It is an idea that has been floated that the BCCI might be given a slightly higher share as compared to the other members, but that does not really solve the purpose. Would you not want the best appraisal if you have brought maximum business to your company? Or would you be happy to share the fruits of your effort with those who are not even part of your endeavor? We don’t see anything wrong in our demand.”