Cricket South Africa is rather shocked than disappointed with the International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief executive David Richardson, over his comment of the country’s inability to stand up to the big three countries of the international game.
Speaking earlier during a press conference in Sri Lanka, Richardson said:
“The international game has gone through a period of turbulence, where the governance, the financial model, the playing [of the game] was in turmoil by the resolutions passed by the ICC in 2014. What happened in 2014 took place really because unfortunately countries like South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand were not able to stand up to the big boys. I don’t think that will happen again.”
Apart from this, he said cricket’s governing body is aiming to expand their reach on the international stage with an intention to have 15-16 teams playing top level game in coming future.
Not buying Richardson’s thoughts for sure, CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat hit back at him, tagging the comments as “frankly nonsense” before insisting to put up the matter in front of the ICC chairman Shashank Manohar.
“If he is indeed correctly quoted, his remarks come as a complete shock to us. For someone who was actually party to the 2014 resolutions to now make such a disparaging remark to CSA is frankly nonsense and insulting to us.”
He further added the board wasn’t in with the idea from the outset itself and made severe efforts to bring amendments into the proposal, which after their written submission to the ICC earlier, actually took place. Backing the ideology of his board, Lorgat said CSA will continue to stand for what is right in the future also.
“The CSA Board had from the very outset realized how damaging the original proposals would have been to the global growth of the game and together with Pakistan and Sri Lanka had strongly opposed it. This included CSA making a significant written submission to the ICC Board which had resulted in a number of the original proposals being amended. That’s in fact the reason why we are where we are now. The CSA Board will always stand up for what it believes to be right for the game.”
In 2014, the ICC granted India, England and Australia a greater stature above all which invited a lot of criticism from the independent cricket bodies and stakeholders across the globe.