BCCI will still earn around Rs 2,500 crore even after the rollback of the Big Three system

What’s the story?

February 3 could be one of the most important days for cricket in the recent past. The International Cricket Council convenes for the all-important meeting, and one of the main agendas of the meet is about abolishing what has come to be known as the Big Three model.

Back in 2014, the then BCCI president N Srinivasan was at the forefront of a revamped ICC model which shook the governing body’s structure and brought to the fore the trinity of India-England-Australia, with the theory that these countries should receive the lion’s share of the proceeds as these countries brought in most money into the organisation.

However, even as this arrangement is about to be booted out, there are many reports which have estimated the Indian board would still earn about Rs 2,500 crore per year.

In case you didn’t know...

The International Cricket Council allocated an equal share of money to all the 10 Test playing nations before 2014, an arrangement which was done away with by India-England-Australia as they believed that they deserved a major chunk of the financial gains as they contribute more money to the ICC’s purse.

Thus according to the Big Three model, India would get US$ 507 million (Rs 3,400 crores approx) as contribution cost from 2015. Also, England would get US $110 million (Rs 739 crores) and Australia US$67 million (Rs 450 crores).

The heart of the matter

Ever since Shashank Manohar has come in as the president of the International Cricket Council he has made his intentions clear about taking back the Big-3 arrangement. He raised objections about the Big Three pocketing a lion’s share of the revenue which was not make any economic sense.

He cited the gains made by nations like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe which got US$ 5 million (Rs 33.61 crores) and US$ 3 million (Rs 20 crores approx) in the eight-year cycle. There was a huge discrepancy to the financial gains when compared to India which was netting in $507 million.

Thus, Manohar proposed to cut India’s share by a considerable margin on 6%, a proposal which was supported by all countries except India. The BCCI believes and has also argued everywhere that if the Big Three arrangement is taken back it would hit BCCI in a big way and the loss would result in more than Rs 1000 crores.

What's next?

The new panel appointed by the Supreme Court to run Indian cricket has supported the proposal put forward by Shashank Manohar. However, Amitabh Chaudhary was the only person who was not on the same page as the others and raised his reservations about the same.

It now appears as if the ICC has enough support to act on the proposal and the BCCI seems to be sidelined for the time being.

Sportskeeda’s Take

The Big Three model came under heavy criticism from all quarters and several small nations believed that they were being bullied by the trinity. Thus, the ICC could do well if they decide to do away with the prevalent system as it would then create a level playing field for all the countries which would benefit the game in the longer run.