Anurag Thakur: Not interested in ICC, unlike former BCCI president Shashank Manohar

As the controversies surrounding BCCI President Anurag Thakur and ICC chairman Shashank Manohar continue to increase, Anurag Thakur has come out and stated that unlike his predecessor Shashank Manohar, he is not "interested" in any ICC post and his sole focus at present is to protect the rights of Indian cricket.

Hinting at Manohar, Thakur said, “One who had to go to ICC have already gone long back. I have no interest and I am happy here with BCCI and nothing is more important for me than India. We have to protect the rights of India. If you don’t think about India then it will be difficult to think about any other country. Today there is India, so world cricket is growing,” Thakur said.

The allocation of $135 million for the Champions Trophy in England next year, the two-tier system and the centralised marketing of the broadcast rights of bilateral series – these are few of the issues for which Manohar and Thakur have been in disagreement about.

"There is no confrontation with ICC. For the benefit of cricket across the globe whatever steps need to be taken, BCCI has taken those. If the account or budget has been passed and India, the country which has the biggest market, is not included in the finance committee and all of a sudden you come to know about it then you have to look into it. "Today other countries need more money than India. When we are asked to cut our shares then we suggested that ICC should cut down on their event cost. If BCCI has been successful in hosting tournaments whether IPL or World Cup and cutting down the event cost then it is also equally important for other organisation to look into this matter. We are here to help,” said the BCCI President

Thakur was also completely against the building of an office in London which will be handed over to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) once the ICC Champions Trophy gets over.

"ICC has held tournaments in various countries and in no country they have built any infrastructure and so it is up to the ICC to decide whether they want to build or not so does that mean that if India hosts the Champions Trophy or World Cup 2023, there will be Rs 100 crore spent only to build infrastructure. I mean all we are trying to say that there has to be some justification in the money spent because it belongs to 105 countries."

Thakur also went on to speak about domestic cricket in India and how the crowds have been increasing every year, especially in the Duleep Trophy this year.

"We wanted to see how the Duleep Trophy experience goes. We have seen such a large crowd this year. So we need to think how we can focus on domestic cricket, do we need to shift them to new venues or it should have day/night matches. So we have to analyse that and we will take a call in some months." "We need to find out why nobody watches Test cricket. ICC feels who will come to watch Tests from 10am-5pm. Where as, we in India want to organise the 13 Tests in such a way that more people come to watch Tests. "We have to create a balance between Tests, ODIs and T20s and that is what BCCI is doing. We have to see how we can bring the young generation, who watch T20, to follow Test cricket. "Whether it has to be day/night or we need to shift to smaller venues, all that we will understand when we have these 13 Tests this season. I am sure Kanpur will be a great success. We will see lot of things coming during the season," he said.

Anurag Thakur has been instrumental in the recent achievements of the BCCI and Indian cricket, and we hope that these controversies with the ICC and Shashank Manohar in particular soon fade away.