Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ehsan Mani believes that the next Internal Cricket Council (ICC) chairman should not be from the ‘big three’ cricket nation — Australia, England and India. As per him, there is a lot of politics and favouritism in the governing council.
Ehsan Mani is said to be a strong contender for the post of ICC’s chairman after Shashank Manohar, a prominent Indian lawyer, stepped down from the past two months ago.
While speaking to Forbes, he opined that it would be healthier to not recruit from the above-mentioned three-nation. He said that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket Australia (CA) had introduced politics to protect the interests but now ICC is struggling among the three.
“It would be healthier to have someone (the chairperson) not from the ‘big three’. The politics introduced by Australia, England and India in 2014 to protect their positions – now they are struggling to unwind it because it doesn’t suit them anymore,” he said.
Ehsan Mani lashes out on ICC model of favouritism:
The PCB chairman further blamed ICC’s funding model which favours mostly India and England. He also said that the that there had been favouritism even in the allocation of major events
“It’s not only the funding model that is wrong and skewered to India and also to some degree England. They allocated ICC events to themselves, gave themselves generous hosting fees and the benefits from gate money and hospitality. In 2019 [World Cup hosts] England would have made what Pakistan, West Indies or South Africa do over an eight-year period. That’s what’s wrong with the system,” Ehsan Mani concluded.
Meanwhile, India will host two big events in the coming years- T20 World Cup 2021 and ODI World Cup 2023. England hosted last year’s World Cup while Australia will host the 2022 edition of the T20 World Cup.