Lack of unanimity delays ICC revamp

Due to lack of unanimity, the International Cricket Council's (ICC) board Tuesday was forced to delay the vote on the draft proposal that would provide more financial and administrative control of the game to India, England and Australia.

The proposal made by ICC's Financial and Commercial Affairs Committee (F&CA) was fiercely protested by the cricket boards of South Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan and South Africa during the first day of the meeting here at the ICC headquarters.

The ICC board had unanimous support for a set of principles relating to the future structure, governance and financial models and hoped for consensus at a "follow-up board meeting next month".

But some members are fiercely opposed to the power sharing structure that will give more power to the cricket boards of India, England and Australia.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) in a statement restated their opposition.

"We have communicated to the ICC Board that the BCB will not endorse any proposal that compromises Bangladesh's full member rights in terms of status and participation," said BCB's acting CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhary.

"Bangladesh was the only full member nation to take a stand on this issue."

ICC president Alan Issac claimed that the ICC board has unanimously supported a set of far-reaching principles that will underpin the long-term prosperity of the global game.

"There is more work to be done by the members in developing their schedules of bilateral cricket while at the ICC we need to work through the detail of the manner in which these principles will be implemented. Extensive work will now be undertaken in advance of a follow-up board meeting next month," Isaac added.

The leaked draft paper created a controversy in the lead up to Tuesday's meeting with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and South Africa opposing the planned overhaul of the ICC.

The officials of these four countries told Cricinfo the matter had not gone to vote and they needed time to study the proposal. The website reported that Bangladesh has already written to the ICC, opposing the changes.

According to the ICC statement, the board supported a host of "principles" in the meeting.

It said that an Indian cricket board (Board of Control for Cricket in India) official will chair the ICC board from 2014 for a period of two years while a representative from Cricket Australia and England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) will chair the executive committee and financial and commercial affairs committee respectively.

It was also agreed that three ICC events will take place in the four-year cycle and the Champions Trophy will replace the proposed World Test Championship.

The ICC said that a Test Cricket Fund will be introduced for the full members (except BCCI, CA and ECB) to encourage and support the longest format.

It further said that "there will be an opportunity for all members to play all formats of cricket on merit, with participation based on meritocracy; no immunity to any country, and no change to membership status".

The two-tier system in Test cricket proposed that offered immunity to India, England and Australia was also changed. Now there will be an opportunity for all members to play all formats of cricket on merit, with participation based on meritocracy, no immunity to any country, and no change to membership status.

The Test Cricket Fund paid equally on an annual basis to all full members (except the BCCI, CA and the ECB) will be introduced to encourage and support Test match cricket.

The board also agreed that a larger percentage from the increasing associate members' surplus will be distributed to the higher performing non-full members.

There will also be mutually agreed bilateral future tours programme (FTP) agreements which will be legally binding and bankable and will run for the same period as the ICC commercial rights cycle (2015-2023).