TELFORD VICE
Cricket SA (CSA) are set to lose millions in earnings from International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments if the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) get their way and keep the lion’s share of the profits from world events.
Along with the other nine full members of the ICC, CSA have hitherto enjoyed an equal share of the surplus from ICC tournaments. In future, they could be fourth on the list of earners.
“This is directly linked to the BCCI’s problems with Haroon (Lorgat, CSA’s chief executive),” a source within SA cricket, who declined to be named for fear of reprisal, said of CSA’s proposed downgrading.
The BCCI, the most powerful body in the game, took it as their right to oppose Lorgat’s appointment as CSA boss because of bad blood that began flowing between him and them when he was ICC chief executive between 2008 and 2012.
As a result, India’s tour of SA this season was shortened - which will cost CSA up to R200-million in lost revenue. In addition, what was once perhaps the strongest relationship between two boards in international cricket has been destroyed.
The BCCI would be at the head of the ICC’s restructured cash queue, followed by the England Cricket Board, Cricket Australia and CSA, and boards representing, in order, Pakistan, West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
The proposal to change international cricket’s revenue structure was tabled in draft form at an ICC meeting in Dubai on January 9.
“We’ve become like New Zealand or Bangladesh, who get told who they are going to play against,” a SA administrator said. “It’s not only about money; it’s that you want to be part of the decision-making.
“While Lorgat is there, CSA will get nothing.”
But, as an Indian insider explained, “The BCCI has contended that since 70% of the ICC’s revenue is generated from India, the BCCI is entitled to a bigger share of the ICC pie.
“The current distribution system is such that all full members get equal amounts, which means the BCCI gets as much as Zimbabwe Cricket although Zimbabwe contributes nothing to the ICC economy.
“Since (BCCI president Narayanaswami) Srinivasan came to power, he has fiercely fought for a bigger share for the BCCI. The ICC has agreed in principle to abandon the equi-distribution system and adopt a new method wherein the bigger boards get more.”
The ICC’s full members will split an estimated US$525-million of the surplus of US$1.6-billion the world body expects to bank in the 2014-15 financial cycle. If the BCCI keeps 70% of that amount - US$367.5-million - the remaining nine members would squabble over the remaining US$157.5-million.
Under the existing system, each of the full members earned the equivalent of R143.2-million - US$13.2-million at yesterday’s exchange rate - from the ICC for 2011 alone.
The new deal was discussed at a meeting of CSA’s member forum - which unlike the board includes the presidents of all of SA’s provincial affiliates - on Friday and yesterday.
The agenda CSA sent out for the meeting was apparently vague, listing only a presentation by Lorgat followed by questions. Without detailed information, the provinces would have struggled to give their presidents a mandate for the meeting.
One administrator questioned why the ICC proposal was not being debated by CSA’s board: “They make the member forum feel important now, and then they ignore them for the rest of the year.”
Asked whether the ICC document had been circulated among the provincial presidents and whether the matter would be discussed by the board, CSA failed to respond.
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