We have all had a lot of fun this last ten days since the dramas erupted.
But the various threads have become little more than a venue for arguments as to the power through wealth of Indian cricket.
I'm hoping to discuss something deeper here, without the trolling of which I'm as guilty as the next man. And for legal reasons I will pick my words carefully.
So let's go back to basics.
1) The BCCI's own income is by far the largest in the cricket world.
2) Until 2014, every major cricket nation shared equally any profit surplus made by the ICC, in addition to their own revenue.
3) In 2014, the BCCI, aided and abetted by Cricket Australia and the ECB, mounted a hostile coup within the ICC. It's main effect was to reduce everyone else's financial share of ICC profits and to multiply India's share by 500%. They also seized control of every ICC committee, leading to the current situation in which they award themselves hosting rights for every ICC tournament. At this time N Srinivasan controlled the BCCI, and shortly afterwards the ICC.
4) In 2017 it has become apparent that the BCCI only spends a small proportion on audited cricket-related activities and that most of its expenditure is in the form of unregulated and unaudited payments to state cricket associations. And the clique which is jumping up and down in anger at the idea of the ICC reducing its BCCI payments is the Srinivasan clique.
All in all, this is my conclusion, worded in such a way as to not allege any wrongdoing by anyone.
N Srinivasan appears to have cultivated a power base within the BCCI which appears to be based in certain state cricket associations.
On his watch, the BCCI "negotiated" a vast increase in its share of ICC profits, which seems to have been primarily used to pay enormous sums to those state cricket associations, with the seemingly deliberate failure to introduce any processes to audit what they spend that money on.
I have a dark and dirty confession to make here. I enjoy the posts of [MENTION=142162]Napa[/MENTION] , [MENTION=76058]cricketjoshila[/MENTION] and [MENTION=143357]kdoversmg[/MENTION] just as much as I enjoy teasing them. Same with [MENTION=143252]Poutine[/MENTION] and [MENTION=83349]R0H1T[/MENTION] . I like to think that we are all friends who love the same game, but who tease one another.
But I am starting to suspect that all of us - including myself - have misread what is going on at the BCCI.
I think that this is all about the Srinivasan power base. The BCCI really is rich and powerful, but Srinivasan saw the ICC surplus and engineered the Big Three coup in order to source massive amounts of money to pay to his desired power base, the state cricket associations.
There is no crime in that. But it strikes me that the Srinivasan bloc is trying to paint this dispute as a matter of national honour and prestige for India when it is nothing more than an attempt by the ICC to stop its profits from being used to buy power within the BCCI.
But the various threads have become little more than a venue for arguments as to the power through wealth of Indian cricket.
I'm hoping to discuss something deeper here, without the trolling of which I'm as guilty as the next man. And for legal reasons I will pick my words carefully.
So let's go back to basics.
1) The BCCI's own income is by far the largest in the cricket world.
2) Until 2014, every major cricket nation shared equally any profit surplus made by the ICC, in addition to their own revenue.
3) In 2014, the BCCI, aided and abetted by Cricket Australia and the ECB, mounted a hostile coup within the ICC. It's main effect was to reduce everyone else's financial share of ICC profits and to multiply India's share by 500%. They also seized control of every ICC committee, leading to the current situation in which they award themselves hosting rights for every ICC tournament. At this time N Srinivasan controlled the BCCI, and shortly afterwards the ICC.
4) In 2017 it has become apparent that the BCCI only spends a small proportion on audited cricket-related activities and that most of its expenditure is in the form of unregulated and unaudited payments to state cricket associations. And the clique which is jumping up and down in anger at the idea of the ICC reducing its BCCI payments is the Srinivasan clique.
All in all, this is my conclusion, worded in such a way as to not allege any wrongdoing by anyone.
N Srinivasan appears to have cultivated a power base within the BCCI which appears to be based in certain state cricket associations.
On his watch, the BCCI "negotiated" a vast increase in its share of ICC profits, which seems to have been primarily used to pay enormous sums to those state cricket associations, with the seemingly deliberate failure to introduce any processes to audit what they spend that money on.
I have a dark and dirty confession to make here. I enjoy the posts of [MENTION=142162]Napa[/MENTION] , [MENTION=76058]cricketjoshila[/MENTION] and [MENTION=143357]kdoversmg[/MENTION] just as much as I enjoy teasing them. Same with [MENTION=143252]Poutine[/MENTION] and [MENTION=83349]R0H1T[/MENTION] . I like to think that we are all friends who love the same game, but who tease one another.
But I am starting to suspect that all of us - including myself - have misread what is going on at the BCCI.
I think that this is all about the Srinivasan power base. The BCCI really is rich and powerful, but Srinivasan saw the ICC surplus and engineered the Big Three coup in order to source massive amounts of money to pay to his desired power base, the state cricket associations.
There is no crime in that. But it strikes me that the Srinivasan bloc is trying to paint this dispute as a matter of national honour and prestige for India when it is nothing more than an attempt by the ICC to stop its profits from being used to buy power within the BCCI.