BCCI loses both revenue, governance vote at ICC meet

The members of the International Cricket Council (ICC) on 26 April 2017 voted in favour of a new revenue sharing model and a change in governance structure, delivering a huge blow to the world’s richest cricket body, BCCI that had been against the move.

The new proposal was put to a floor test on the first day of the ICC Board meeting in Dubai.

While the new revenue-sharing model was approved by a 9-1 vote with only BCCI’s Representative Amitabh Chaudhary voting against it, the proposal for changes in governance structure was approved by an 8-2 vote, with Sri Lanka’s representative Thilanga Sumathipala also opposing it alongside Chaudhary.

Key Highlights

• Under the revamped framework, the share of BCCI will come down to almost half at under $300 million (Rs 1,920 crore) a year.

• The vote saw Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, on whom BCCI was banking for support, voting in favour of the changes.

• The new proposals were introduced by former BCCI President and current ICC Chairman, Shashank Manohar.

• The objective behind introducing the new revenue model is to drive a more equitable distribution of ICC’s proceeds.

• The earlier model saw the ‘Big Three’ – India, Australia and England getting a major chunk of the international body’s total revenue, among which India’s alone was about $570 million.

Further, reports suggest a possibility of a strong action on the same from BCCI’s side. The body out rightly rejected the offer of an extra $100 million pay-out in revenue by Manohar over the initially proposed $290 million.

The standoff between BCCI and the ICC could have a deep impact on the game, as a bulk of ICC’s revenue comes from the cricketing body.