ICC has no relevance without BCCI, says Anurag Thakur

Union minister and former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Anurag Thakur on Saturday hit out at the International Cricket Council (ICC) saying the latter has little relevance without the Indian board, the richest in the world.

The 45-year-old, who is the Union minister of state for finance and corporate affairs, was in Mumbai for the Sandad Mahakumbh award ceremony where he said the same citing the fact that the Indian board used to give the game’s world body 75 percent of grants.

Anurag, son of former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and an MP from the state since 2008, also backed newly-elected BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and expressed hope that the latter will take up the matter with the ICC and bring the BCCI the share it deserves.

New BCCI treasurer also feels the same as his brother Anurag Thakur

“The ICC has no relevance without the BCCI as it used to give it seventy-five percent of grants to run its affairs,” Republic TV cited reports quoting Anurag, also the brother of newly appointed BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal, as saying. Anurag was also optimistic that his brother would do the job as a treasurer honestly. Arun also echoed Anurag’s sentiments recently saying that India not having a say in the ICC is a major concern. He questioned the very relevance of the ICC if it doesn’t have India in a prominent role.

Anurag, who served as the BCCI president between 2015 and 2017, is not directly involved in the BCCI’s affairs anymore but he said he is open to guiding the board on certain matters.

India of late has lost its voice in the ICC and in its latest working group, there is no representative from the major cricketing power. Under the ‘Big Three Mode’ (England, Australia and India), India were supposed to get $570 million from the ICC’s revenue-sharing model.

But under the days of Shashank Manohar, India lost the vote in the model and had to settle for only $293 million. The onus lies on Ganguly now to go to the ICC as the BCCI’s man and get its share. Ganguly said in a press conference last week about getting $372 million from the world body, mainly during the back-end of the eight-year cycle starting 2016 in which India hosts the World Cups of 2021 (T20I) and 2023 (ODI).

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