A new bill proposed by Cricketing’s powerhouse nations could see the West Indies relegated to being a second tier team, among the likes of Kenya, Namibia and Ireland.
A new bill proposed by Cricketing’s powerhouse nations could see the West Indies relegated to being a second tier team, among the likes of Kenya, Namibia and Ireland.
The move has come in for stern criticisms from former cricket chiefs who say the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) proposal for greater decision-making powers for a three-strong group of the Board of Control for Cricket is unreasonable.
The trio concerned are India, Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board — who between them represent the game’s wealthiest nations.
The ICC is due to discuss the controversial plan — which has been drafted because of an apparent threat by India to withdraw from major global events unless there is radical reform of the ICC — in Dubai on Tuesday and Wednesday.
However, a growing number of respected former cricket chiefs have expressed their alarm at such moves — which would also include a two-tier Test league with Australia, India and England being protected from relegation owing to their financial weight.
Pakistan’s former ICC president Ehsan Mani has written a letter to the ICC — which significantly has been co-signed by Malcolm Speed and Malcolm Gray formerly high up in the Australian cricket administration and then respectively chief executive and president of the ICC — saying the paper needed to be withdrawn.
He and the other signatories — which also include former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd — agreed the ICC needed to re-examine the conclusions of the 2012 Woolf Report into ICC governance, which recommended, among other things, an improvement in governance standards, the appointment of independent board directors and greater transparency.
Writer: Giovanni Dennis
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