The ICC chairman Shashank Manohar admits that his first priority is to protect the interest of the world governing body rather than protecting BCCI’s interest. The recent problem regarding the two-tier cricket system raised many questions about the relations between the ICC and the BCCI.
BCCI along with Bangladesh and Zimbabwe rejected the two-tier structure in the future on grounds that the smaller nations might not gain if such a format is introduced. Followed by the rejection of two-tier Test proposal, now ICC proposed a new format called Test Championship with an ODI league.
Initially, it was thought that Manohar is not protecting India’s interest in the governing body.
Manohar, on the accusations, said, “As an independent chairman of the world body, I’m there to protect the ICC’s interests, and not the BCCI’s.”
Manohar also cleared that BCCI’s allegation of $135 million fund allocation to the ECB for the Champions Trophy is wrong. But, Manohar admitted that the #135 million number was “actually wrong figure”, he said, “This $135 million is a factually wrong figure.
Manohar said, “The budget for the 2016 World T20 was $55m, which included the production cost too. The budget for the Champions Trophy is $46m, which also includes the production cost for the event. You must remember that the cost of accommodation and travel is much more in England than in India.”
BCCI in a statement said that they are not in favour of two-tier cricket system as it will not do justice to lower ranked countries.
There was a speculation that ICC always supported the two-tier cricket system.
Manohar he said, “I had made it clear at the ICC meeting of Chief Executives (CECs) and the Board of Directors in Edinburgh that since this involved an issue regarding bilateral series rights, it shouldn’t be discussed on the ICC platform.”
“The ICC only acted as a facilitator while organizing an informal meeting of representatives of the countries in Dubai, which wasn’t attended by CECs. We didn’t pay for the expenses towards that meeting. Personally, I was against the idea, because the value of the second-tier teams would be negligible,” he added.