World cricket is where they are now because of India: Anurag Thakur

The BCCI and the ICC have on the opposite sides in recent times. Anurag Thakur, the president of the BCCI and Shashank Manohar, the ICC president have been involved in sort of banter lately due to their difference in their opinions.

In the recent media session which was organized to announce the much important decision to allot the IPL broadcasting rights through open tenders, Thakur looked pretty vocal about his stance in the ICC v BCCI saga and without taking Manohar’s name sent out a couple of messages to him when asked if he wanted to become the ICC president.

“I have no interest. Jisko ICC jana tha woh bahut pehli hi gaye,” he said, grinning.

“I’m more than happy serving Indian cricket. For me, serving the nation and Indian cricket comes first and foremost, said Thakur at the conference which was organized just after his return from Washington, where he was part of a delegation of Indian MPs who had gone to meet their American counterparts.”

“You say you have no time to look after Indian cricket because you want to look after the world, but if you don’t think about your country, how can you think about the world? (In cricket), they can’t run the world without India. World cricket is where they are now because of India and to sideline us will be counterproductive,” he emphasized.

ICC was recently made to drop the plans for a two-tier system due to strong opposition from BCCI along with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

“The ICC chairman thinks nobody watches Test cricket between 10 am and 5 pm. And here we are playing 13 Test matches this season and planning a grand celebration for India’s 500th Test. Also, a two-tier system will widen the gulf between the countries. So it’s sometimes difficult (to work together),” he said, reiterating that the BCCI is duty-bound to stand by the likes of Bangladesh, West Indies, and Zimbabwe.

Thakur also said that ICC should instead try and find out how to strike a perfect balance between the three formats.

“Instead of saying such things, the ICC should ask themselves why people don’t come to watch cricket and how to find the perfect balance between the three formats. That’s exactly what the BCCI is doing. We understand that there are people who watch Test cricket, so you need to have Test matches. There are people, especially the younger ones who watch T20s. So we have T20s. Now we have to think how we can make the T20-watching fans to follow Test cricket,” he asserted.

He also lashed out for neglecting the necessity of having a BCCI representative in the ICC financial committee.

“India is where the maximum money comes from. So how can they have a financial committee without any BCCI representative?” he asks.