BCCI might decide to skip the Champions Trophy 2017

With the timer counting back days until the Champions Trophy 2017 kicks off in England reports in the media suggest that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) might as well decide to pull off from the tournament. The Indian team will enter CT 2017 as the defending champs but with an ongoing tussle for power and dominance between the BCCI and the International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman Shashank Manohar things might as well turn dirty.

BCCI has forever had a command over the functioning of the ICC with a list of former Indian board president’s going on to hold the top position in the global cricket governing body. But with the Supreme Court and Lodha Committee holding strings tight they were without a president and secretary after Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke were sacked by the SC.

The ICC meeting has already started in Dubai and since there is no president the representatives from BCCI are IDFC MD and CEO Vikram Limaye who is a part of the four-member panel appointed by the SC to take care of the administration of the Indian board until fresh elections are held. He will have BCCI secretary Amitabh Chaudhary and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary for company at the meet.

While the richest cricket board in the world has had its reservations for the big 3 formula where India, England and Australian boards get a major share of the revenue since they are responsible for the generation as well a lot of smaller boards like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have expressed their reservations against it. ICC president Shashank Manohar is also someone known stand with the other option that isn’t weighed in favour of the big 3.

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With no strong representation, the BCCI will not be able to dictate terms at the meeting and it is likely that a decision over the issues might be taken. In case that happens the board will have a last card to play and threaten to pull off. Which if happens will hit the ICC hard as the overall revenue from the tournament will take a hit.

It will be interesting to see how events unfold in the ICC meeting and how the newly appointed administrative panel handles things in the coming few months.