If the initiative of the International Cricket Council is successful, then cricket fans can get the gift of T20 World Cup every year. The ICC has proposed to hold the T20 World Cup every year and the One day World Cup once in 3 years. Through this, the ICC wants to enter the global media rights market for the period 2023 to 2028 so that it can get a bigger share of revenue from potential broadcasters like Star Sports. However, the BCCI does not agree with the ICC’s proposal and the new board officials may soon face a duel with the ICC. This is because its proposed future tours program (FTP) may have an adverse impact on the revenue of the Cricket Board of India.
Actually, currently the ODI World Cup happens once in four years and the T20 World Cup once in two years. However, since the start of T20 World Cup in 2007, the next tournament was held in 2009. After this, the third T20 World Cup was held in 2010 itself. The FTP is the calendar that the ICC and member countries create separately for a period of five years under which bilateral and multinational tournaments are played. In such a situation, if Sourav Ganguly becomes the new chairman of BCCI, then it will be a big challenge in front of the board headed by him.
The ICC’s next T20 World Cup will be in Australia in 2020, while the subsequent tournament will be held in India in 2021 a year later. At the same time, the next One Day World Cup will be in India in 2023. The proposed draft for the period after 2023 was recently discussed at a meeting of the ICC Chief Executives. BCCI (CEO) Rahul Johri clearly said in an email to ICC CEO Manu Sahni that this decision will not be correct for several reasons. A senior official of the board said that after the elections are held, the board will now take strict steps in this matter.
According to a senior board official, Suppose Star Sports or Sony has a budget of 100 million rupees for TV, radio and digital broadcasting rights. Two important parties in this are the ICC and the BCCI. The BCCI has IPL and bilateral series (other than Pakistan). It is exciting to have T20 World Cup every year and if ICC reaches the market first then the major share of revenue will go to its account. If the broadcaster spends Rs 60 crore on buying ICC rights for the period 2023-2028, then it will have only Rs 40 crore left when BCCI enters the market. This will reduce BCCI’s revenue.
Rahul Johri said in the email, ‘BCCI neither agrees nor ratifies ICC tournaments after 2023 and proposed additional ICC tournaments. Apart from this, the BCCI also has to fulfill its agreements for bilateral series. On the other hand, if the opinion of the working group (CEO of member boards) is not taken, then the unilateral decision will be immature and it also means that the correct procedure was not followed.