Ever since Shashank Manohar became ICC’s first-ever independent Chairman, he has set out to right the wrongs of the previous ICC governance under N Srinivasan. The Srinivasan-led ICC changed the entire scheme of things in 2014 with a momentous decision regarding the game’s revenue structure.
The trio of the BCCI, English Cricket Board and Cricket Australia put together a campaign to restructure the existing structure to ensure the 3 boards get a lion share of the revenues, and automatically also having larger clout in the game.
The decision was opposed by a number of boards including Cricket South Africa, Pakistan Cricket Board and Sri Lanka Cricket. But after persistent lobbying, the restructuring was passed with only the PCB and SLC abstaining.
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Once Manohar took over, his mandate included stopping the ‘bullying of the big 3’ in the world of cricket. He told The Hindu, “I don't agree with the three major countries bullying the ICC. That's my personal view, because as I have always said, an institution is bigger than individuals. You should have the best man, whether he comes from Zimbabwe, or West Indies, or even from an associate or affiliate to work on a committee, who will promote the interests of the ICC."
His statement made it clear that he wasn’t going to tolerate how the game was currently being run.
On ICC chief-executive Dave Richardson’s visit to Sri Lanka recently, he hit out at Cricket South Africa for not standing up and opposing the restructuring when it could. He said that the reason that the ‘big 3’ took over was due to the inability of the other boards, including CSA, to stop them.
"The international game has gone through a period of turbulence, where the governance, the financial model, the playing [of the game] was in turmoil by the resolutions passed by the ICC in 2014 […] what happened in 2014 took place really because unfortunately countries like South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand were not able to stand up to the big boys. I don't think that will happen again.” Richardson was quoted as saying.
Haroon Lorgat, CSA’s chief executive took exception to that. He responded, saying, “For someone who was actually party to the 2014 resolutions to now make such a disparaging remark to CSA is frankly nonsense and insulting to us. The CSA Board had from the very outset realised how damaging the original proposals would have been to the global growth of the game and together with Pakistan and Sri Lanka had strongly opposed it. This included CSA making a significant written submission to the ICC Board which had resulted in a number of the original proposals being amended. That's in fact the reason why we are where we are now. The CSA Board will always stand up for what it believes to be right for the game."
Haroon Lorgat also said that he would take up the matter with ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar.
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