Andy Roberts, a former West Indies cricketer, has turned against the International Cricket Council (ICC) and launched a violen t diatribe against the governing body. The ICC has been behind the BCCI in Roberts’ comments. What Roberts has said is similar to many others who claim that the Indian team derives so much viewership and revenue that the BCCI is enabled to treat it preferentially.
The ICC has allowed the Champions Trophy 2025 to be in a hybrid model. Just because India has denied traveling to Pakistan for the event, here comes the ICC swaying to BCCI’s demands, allowing India to play their matches in Dubai. This has raised several eyebrows, especially since India played all their matches, including the group stage, semi-final, and final, at the same venue in Dubai.
The BCCI’s Stranglehold on the ICC- Andy Roberts
Roberts said BCCI had a lion’s share slice of the pie, making it inconceivable for the governing body to deny a request from India.
“To me, the ICC stands for the Indian Cricket Board. India dictates everything. If tomorrow, India says, ‘Listen, there should be no no-balls and wides,’ take my word, the ICC will find a way to satisfy India,” Andy Roberts told Mid-Day.
It does not need an expert to tell that the BCCI in charge of ICC today extends to implications for quite a good segment of cricketing global governance, raising concerns about fairness and equality with which the cricketing governing body would treat different countries.
There are doubtlessly issues of concern that the ICC has to address to ensure that its deliberations are not productively agreed to or imposed out of a single national interest but are only so determined from the perspective of the game’s best interests.
In the end, the entire cricketing community will be looking at all the actions taken by the ICC, hoping for the things to change and the governing body to act on the concerns raised by Roberts and others. Only time will tell whether the ICC will show enough guts to withdraw itself from the pressures exerted by the BCCI.
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