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When superpower plays victim

BCCI threat to boycott ICC over revenue-sharing is based on alternative facts

The ICC, after the BCCI’s sulk, offered them an additional 0 million, swelling the Indian board’s kitty to 3 million. (Source: Express Photo)

The ICC has conspired to deny the BCCI a lion’s share of the global revenue it rightly deserves and, with this sly manipulation, undermined India’s global clout, crippled it financially and forced the richest board to isolate itself from world cricket. Even if this lament gets shouted out from the rooftops in seething anger, with the intention of awakening the inner Sunny Deol of a cricket fan, it will remain an alternative fact. That’s because the figures that get tossed around during the ICC vs BCCI revenue-sharing debates need to be taken with a pinch of salt. When arguments are laced with the angst of a fan and the anger of ultra-nationalists, numbers often get overlooked and thus go unchecked. Remember these are times when truth and reality aren’t the twins they once were. Truth, of late, looks and sounds different, it is whatever the powerful — in this case, a few in the BCCI — choose to believe. Reality, meanwhile, remains hidden, sometimes for so long that it becomes inconsequential.

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So, before it’s too late, here’s fact-checking the victim’s statement after the ICC’s alleged daylight robbery. The BCCI wanted $570 million from the ICC, but all it got was $293 million. That’s a potential loss of $277 million — roughly, Rs 1,800 crore. Now, listen to the lesser-heard other side. Those at the ICC say that the $570 million the BCCI keeps quoting is its gross share. The net share from the “rich get richer” Big 3 model, after the deduction of the ICC’s administrative and other costs, is close to $445 million. Besides, the ICC, after the BCCI’s sulk, offered them an additional $100 million, swelling the Indian board’s kitty to $393 million. So, the new figures, much closer to each other, happen to be $455 million and $393 million. The potential loss now is $62 million or Rs 412 crore.

The loss suddenly shrinks to one-fourth — Rs 1,800 crore to Rs 412 crore — of what the alarmists have been shouting about. There’s more that’s lost in this disturbing “give me more” breast-beating. The revenue-sharing figures aren’t annual projections but money that the ICC would route to India over the next eight years. So, effectively, the $61 million (Rs 412 crore) loss over eight years dips to a Rs 51.5 crore loss every year. Even if we play along and do the math on the gross income — the potential annual loss comes to Rs 148 crore. Will this drop in revenue leave the BCCI bankrupt and force Indian cricketers to take a pay cut and the BCCI to start selling its silverware?

READ: BCCI ready to escalate matters on ICC revenue model; may pull out of all ICC events

More of the fine print needs to be magnified. The income from the ICC isn’t the only spark that makes the BCCI’s balance sheet glitter. Last year, they made a tidy Rs 1,800 crore from a bilateral series at home and the Indian Premier League. This is a robust body that has roughly Rs 5,000 crore in fixed deposits. So, what do figures like Rs 51.6 crore or even, Rs 148 crore — the two projected loss estimates from the new ICC revenue sharing model — mean for the cash-rich BCCI? A few more numbers: BCCI makes around Rs 60-65 crore from every home international, be it Tests, ODIs or T20s. A few T20 evening outings with friendly neighbours will be enough to tide over the perceived shortfall.

In this context, the ICC’s new revenue model shouldn’t have triggered an apocalyptic reaction. And that’s why the threat to cut ties with the ICC seems like an over-reaction. It’s also mildly juvenile since the new model was put to vote at the ICC where the BCCI was the lone voice of dissent. When the game’s superpower has a separatist’s mindset, the sport is sure to suffer. All the BCCI needs to understand is the importance of diversity and the need to be inclusive. They should have known that the Border-Gavaskar Trophy gets eyeballs because India is pitted against the ultra-competitive and immensely skillful cricketers from Australia.

READ: If India doesn’t play, it will become very difficult for the broadcasters to even produce, says acting BCCI secretary, Amitabh Choudhary

Replay any IPL auction to understand the value of foreign players. Cricket’s biggest money-spinner wouldn’t be the brand it is without McCullum, Warne, Gayle or Stokes. If isolated from the world, IPL will be just another Syed Mushtaq T20 Trophy, with cheer leaders. India needs to look at Ireland and Afghanistan like FIFA views India. A long-term junior programme, academies, turfs and the under-17 World Cup have come to India because FIFA, for all its ills, believes in sharing. It’s understandable that it is the ICC’s job to take care of world cricket, but the BCCI can help by being less difficult and more accommodative.

If ever cricket needed a sensitive father figure, it is now. West Indies and Zimbabwe are sinking. Pakistan is barely keeping afloat, while South Africa is fighting a mass exodus of players to England. By providing a helping hand to these nations in need, India can save cricket. Maybe the BCCI wants to flex its muscle and doesn’t feel obliged to groom or help the game grow. That’s the American way of looking at sports. They have thrived in their isolation and have the audacity to call their inter-city sporting contests a World Series. The NBA and NFL are the most successful basketball and football leagues and the competition isn’t between nations. It is a zoo out there as Bulls, Sharks, Raptors, Bucks, Hawks, Eagles play with unquestionable intensity in front of fiercely loyal fans.

READ: India entirely within their rights to withdraw from the Champions Trophy, says Sunil Gavaskar

Maybe, by Americanising the very English sport, the BCCI plans to avenge the Lords who had an undemocratic hold on cricket for ages. There might be a day when mixed teams representing cities might not just play T20 games but Tests too. The India Blue wouldn’t be in a merchandise shop but in the closet of memorabilia collectors. If that’s the case, the BCCI needs to be unapologetic about its intentions. It can be an unabashed cricket corporate. Greed is great, Gordon Gekko said, but please ask that guy on the roof to stop waving the tricolour. He isn’t the voice of the stadium terraces.

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