India deserves more than ICC'S $400 million offer, says Amitabh Choudhary

According to the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary, the $400 million offer the International Cricket Council (ICC) has put forward is not “anywhere even close” to the Indian board’s contribution to global cricket revenues. He also said that the Indian market contributed 70% of global cricket revenues and thus is entitled to get the most part of it.

Going by ICC’s new finance model $293 million is BCCI’s share of ICC revenues across the 2015-23 cycle. While the BCCI demanded $570 million in accordance with the previous Big Three finance model, ICC chairman Shashank Manohar made an offer adding a $100 million to BCCI’s $293 million to bring BCCI’s share to nearly $400 million.

Manohar placed that offer in person to Choudhary during the ICC meetings last week in Dubai but the BCCI rejected. Chaudhary sat once again as the BCCI representative in the ICC board meeting that passed the new constitution, a new governance structure, and the new finance model. The offer was once gain made to the secretary in the meeting.

Manohar declared while presenting the finance model for the first time in the month of February that the basic theory was to allow every member country to get an equal amount of share. But the BCCI objected as they would not accept the model without any scientific basis.

“Why do you forget that a disproportionate share of revenues to cricket comes from India? It’s very easy and misleading to say that India is getting a disproportionate share. The facts are that over 70 per cent of cricket’s revenue world over comes from the Indian market. That [the $293 million offered by the ICC] is not even close to the contribution that India makes.”

There has been a lot of news that India would pull out of the Champions Trophy if the issues with the ICC regarding the revenue shares is not resolved. The BCCI has also considered delaying the announcement of the Champions Trophy squad but the ICC are well aware that they are using the CT to get what they want.

The BCCI has called for an SGM on May 7th and Choudhary has stated that any decision on revoking the Members Participation Agreement (MPA) could only be taken by the BCCI. While COA chairman Vinod Rai has said that pulling out of the tournament was “hypothetical” at the moment, Ramachandra Guha who is a part of the four-member COA is against the boycotting of the Champions Trophy.

Going by the words of Choudhary the decision was not COA’s but the BCCI’s. He quoted, “It’s common sense; if India doesn’t play, it will become very difficult for the broadcasters to even produce [the event].”