Money gap between BCCI and the rest looms large

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

Compared to SA’s board, India’s will in future bank more than 16 times as much revenue earned from the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The ICC’s restructure, according to insiders, reserves 22% of the money raised during the new media rights cycle - between 2015 and 2023 - and allotted to the full member or test-playing countries for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Cricket SA (CSA) have been apportioned 1.3%.

The ICC expects to make between US$2.5-billion and US$3.5-billion in that period, of which two-thirds will be distributed to members. Of that figure, 32% will be split between the full member countries.

That means the BCCI will make anywhere from US$550-million to US$770-million, and CSA between US$32.5-million and US$45.4-million.

Whichever way the numbers stake up, that is a lot of money for a game that is not played to any great level in large parts of the world. For instance, soccer is a small sport in the US - but it is substantially bigger than cricket there. Has cricket sold its soul?

“There is no doubt about it,” former CSA president Mtutuzeli Nyoka said yesterday. “It started in the 1970s with Kerry Packer, but now it’s overt and the culture and the values in the game take second place to money.

“If you look at the alliance that controls cricket (the big three of India, England and Australia) you can see that they are not traditionally allies in a cricket sense. What else besides money could be the glue in their relationship?”

CSA are fifth on the list of ICC earners after India, England, Australia and Pakistan, which lends credence to the Pakistan Cricket Board’s claim last week that they represent the most important country in the game outside of the big three.

However, the figures explode the theory of the big three. The England Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket Australia (CA) revenue shares are 4.7% and 2.9% respectively - far less than India’s. Together, the ECB and CA will be paid just more than a third than what the BCCI will get. There is no big three; there is only a big one.

Thanks to a substantial increase in the asking price for media rights in the new cycle, every country will bank at least twice as much as they have in the past.

But under the system the ICC abandoned at their annual conference in Melbourne last week the 10 full member countries shared revenue equally and could have expected to earn at least US$117.5-million each for the 2015-23 rights cycle.

Under the new rules, CSA could make up to US$85-million less. For the BCCI, payday could be US$652.5-million more pleasurable.

Part of the BCCI’s argument in convincing the other boards to accept the new reality was that everyone would make more money. Perhaps the other countries never entertained the thought that they would in future make far less than if the old structure had been retained.

India have for years contributed most of the ingredients to make cricket’s cake and they have done most of the baking. Now they want a much bigger slice than anyone else of that cake, and no-one can stop them demanding it lest they end up with little or no cake as a result.