A scheduled meeting of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Dubai on Monday has irked BCCI after the former has been advocating a new Future Tours Program (FTP). If it is passed, the ODI World Cup will be held once every three years and every alternate year, there will be a World T20.
The new FTP is all set to be approved by the ICC board without the approval of India, England, New Zealand, Australia, and the West Indies. If that were to happen, top sources in Indian cricket board were quoted as telling the Times Of India, “BCCI will not sign the Members’ Participation Agreement (MPA) with the ICC.”
There has been a standoff between the past BCCI presidents Anurag Thakur and N Srinivasan and ICC Present Shashank Manohar. After the new BCCI’s new office-bearers, including Sourav Ganguly, take over office on October 23, they look prepared to continue their long-standing dispute with the international cricket’s governing body.
A senior official of BCCI added, “In 2017, India came close to terminating their Members’ Participation Agreement with the ICC ahead of the Champions Trophy, before the COA intervened. The ICC chairman should not forget that this time there won’t be any such hindrance. India’s interests at the ICC cannot be ignored, and they (ICC) can’t be going ahead with this (FTP) when the BCCI is busy restructuring. What’s the hurry?”
ICC chief executive Manu Sawhney has reportedly undermined chief executives of the member boards in a bid to launch the FTP.
The strategy of holding the ODI World Cup every three years and a World T20 every alternate year is said to be an attempt at swelling revenues.
The BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, in an email to ICC, said, “The player workload management needs to be analyzed and it is essential for the ICC Cricket Committee to be involved in this matter.”
