So, the undisguised takeover of world cricket by the Indian, English and Australian cricket boards has been approved. The most vocal of the opponents of the proposals, South Africa, flattered to deceive. On Saturday in Singapore, it delivered its vote to the trio in return for a platter of commitments that it can no doubt take back to its domestic board and trumpet victory. It has left its erstwhile ally, Pakistan, in bafflement and screaming betrayal. Both Pakistan and Sri Lanka now face the likelihood of being cold-shouldered by India, in particular, for their abstentions at Saturday’s meeting. The two are now the only full members of the International Cricket Council (ICC) who are without bilateral tour agreements with some of the major Test playing nations, notably India.
Saturday’s vote will inevitably come to be seen as undermining the pulchritudinous game of cricket. For the West Indies Cricket Board, its vote in favour of the proposals was another beamer in a long series which increasingly occludes the glories of yesteryear’s game and heroes. Those who favoured the proposals may well argue that it was a democratic vote; eight independent boards voting yes and none voting no. But who in their right senses would ever vote to diminish their rights in an assembly of equals? For what purpose? It could only be for money and it is. The revenue proposal approved on Saturday will see a major redistribution of money to India, England and Australia.
Votes were coerced through old fashioned enticements that will only further weaken the moral fibre of the game. Since having won test status in 2000, Bangladesh has cruelly never toured India. For its vote on Saturday, a tour is in place within the next eight months. After being browbeaten over the terms of the last tour by India, South Africa has elicited a promise that the Indian cricket board will enable full-fledged tours in the future. The Indian board has also agreed to a regular four-Test and five-ODI series. South Africa will go to India in 2016 and India will visit a couple of years later.
The adjusted proposals by the three boards are as follows:
– There shall be a new five-person executive committee with permanent seats for India, England and Australia. Two other seats will be available to the other seven members but in essence they will be a permanent minority. The committee will make recommendations to the ICC board, which remains the decision-making body.
– India’s Narainswamy Srinivasan, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), will become the ICC board chairman from July 2014. He has already declared that he sees no problem holding both positions simultaneously.
– There shall be a new financial model where full members gain greater financial recognition based on their contributions in terms of finance, their ICC history and on-field performances. It is unclear how “ICC history and on-field performances” will be valued or monetized.
– A Test Cricket Fund will be introduced to guarantee that all 10 Test-playing nations will be in a position to host a home series through to 2023.
– In the rejigged Future Tours Programme (FTP), members will strike binding, bilateral agreements “as a matter of urgency” with the aim of extending the programme until 2023. There is no compulsion for any one country to strike a deal with another which means that old rivalries, enmities and the all-mighty dollar will get in the way of what had hitherto been a fairly uniform series of tours that evened out the odds in Test cricket.
– The World Test Championship has been discarded and the Champions Trophy one-day tournament will continue in 2017 and 2021. The ICC said without a hint of shame “It proved impossible to come up with a format for a four-team finals event in Test cricket that fits the culture of test cricket and preserves the integrity of the format’’.
This decision is a further humiliation of Test cricket.
The mood in the cricketing world today is debilitating and divided. According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Pakistan cricket chief Zaka Ashraf said he felt “cheated” after South Africa abandoned its opposition to the reform proposals. He said South Africa had opposed the reforms as recently as Friday.
“I think South Africa cheated us,” Ashraf told AFP by phone from Singapore. “Just last night (Friday) they told us that they have changed their stance and told us that it was the decision of their board (CSA). It disappointed us.”
He also identified the elephant in the room. “This much stress on money matters is going to harm world cricket in the future,” he told a Pakistani news channel.
“Obviously we are disappointed that South Africa chose to vote in favour of the changes at the last minute but Pakistan and Sri Lanka stood firm together. We will not change our stance,” Ashraf said.
“Greed is never good for any sport…that is our stance and we now have to see what happens in the future. But as a board, Pakistan is still firm on its stance,” he added.
Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif said he fears “severe consequences” from the proposals and was blunt and on point. “I think this is more damaging to cricket than match-fixing,” Latif told AFP. “Giving powers to three ‘dons’ mean they will take every decision on their whims… handing power to the three means the ICC ceased to exist.”
Another former Pakistan chairman, Ijaz Butt told the Associated Press that Pakistan cricket had taken a principled stance but it now remained to be seen whether it would be punished for its stance.
“We have to consider that from 2015 onwards the FTP will no longer be in control of the ICC and now all the boards will decide bilateral series for the next eight years among themselves”, Butt added.
The Indian press has not been shy at all about the way it has characterised the new developments. The Times of India headline said it succinctly `BCCI rules the world’ and that is exactly how it is.
The Press Association reporting on Saturday’s vote said that: “The sense of an executive stranglehold by the boards who helped author these changes is emphasised by the fact that the BCCI president, N Srinivasan, will become the new chair of the ICC board, with Cricket Australia’s Wally Edwards chairing the ExCo and the ECB chairman, Giles Clarke, continuing to do so for the financial committee”.
Prior to Saturday’s vote, Lord Harry Woolf, author of an ICC governance report which urged greater distribution of power at the ICC, called the proposals “alarming” and “entirely motivated by money”.
“I don’t see how if we had this to consider we could see it as anything but a retrograde step,” Woolf told Britain’s Daily Telegraph.
“It is giving extraordinary powers to a small triumvirate of three people, and everybody else has got no power to say anything or do anything,” the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales declared.
“It seems to be entirely motivated by money.”
The new shape of things leaves a bitter aftertaste. The West Indies and the others who voted in favour have surrendered, perhaps irreversibly, the level playing field so crucial on and off the field of play. In addition to close scrutiny over how it uses and accounts for the monies that are likely to flow in, the West Indies Cricket Board must now be placed under greater pressure to deliver results on the field where performance, commitment, drive and verve have been woefully lacking among players. Money is not going to cure these serious ailments. More-over the game is much more than money and far greater in scope, reach and meaning to West Indians.
Expounding on the exceptional qualities of W.G. Grace, CLR James in his masterful Beyond a Boundary describes the game thusly: “Cricket is an art. Like all arts it has a technical foundation. To enjoy it does not require technical knowledge, but analysis that is not technically based is mere impressionism”. The underpinning of cricket, so simply and beautifully rendered by James, is now under threat from the moneyed boards of the game.
