Australian newspaper ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ has exposed an Indian plot to take over International Cricket Council (ICC), saying that Indian Cricket Board Secretary Jay Shah forced the current president, Greg Barclay, to resign to take over the ICC presidency.
Barclay has informed the Board of Directors that he is not interested in the position after the end of the term and will remain in office until November. Jay Shah will become the new president of the International Cricket Council.
In February 2024, the Secretary of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) entered the race to become the Chairman of the ICC.
Greg Barclay of New Zealand was elected in 2022. His term will expire in November 2024. Elections for the next Chairman will be held in November this year.
To be elected as the ICC Chairman, Jay Shah will have to resign from the responsibilities of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and BCCI because, according to the rules, the ICC Chairman cannot hold any other office.
However, this decision may also affect the scheduled Champions Trophy in Pakistan, set for February 2025. Pakistan will host the event, which will have a total of eight teams participating.
The top seven teams from the group stage of the ICC One Day Cricket World Cup 2023 have secured their positions for the tournament, while Pakistan qualified for it as the hosts.
Yesterday, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) rejected media reports of the change in the dates and schedule of the ICC Champions Trophy, which will be held in Pakistan next year, as misleading.
PCB is fully committed to hosting the Champions Trophy 2025 at three iconic venues in Pakistan.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has rejected the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) offer to host the Women’s T20 World Cup, which was initially scheduled to be held in Bangladesh this year.
“They [ICC] have asked us if we would conduct the World Cup. I have categorically said no,” Secretary BCCI J Shah told Times of India. “We’re in the monsoon and on top of that we will host the Women’s ODI World Cup next year. I don’t want to give any kind of signals that I want to hold consecutive World Cups.”
Meanwhile, the ICC is monitoring the situation in Bangladesh.
A final decision on whether to shift the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup from Bangladesh is expected by August 20.
The Women’s T20 World Cup was originally scheduled to take place in Bangladesh from October 3 to October 20, but amid the current political climate in the country, it is no longer considered suitable to hold the event there.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has dropped wicketkeepers Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer from its central contract for year 2023-24, while Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have also been left out of the contract.
Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer both have recently distanced themselves from playing domestic cricket.
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja are in the Grade A Plus category while Ravi Chandran Ashwin, Muhammad Shami, Muhammad Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya are in the Grade A category. Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Akshar Patel and Yashwi Jaiswal are in the Grade B.
15 players have been included in Grade C including Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Rituraj Gaikwad, Shardal Thakur, Shivam Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshad Singh, KS Bharat, Prasad. Krishna, Aveesh Khan and Rajat Patidar are included.
Ishan Kishan left the South Africa tour last year and returned home. Since then he has been absent from competitive cricket. He was not selected in the squad for the home T20 series against Afghanistan and the Test series against England. Team India head coach Rahul Dravid said that Ishan will have to play domestic cricket to return to Team India, but he stayed away from the Ranji Trophy.
Cricket is the third most popular sport in the world with approximately 2.5 billion fans spread across the globe. The gentleman’s game, mocked at times for being slow, has morphed into a fast-paced, adrenalin- pumping speedy ride.
The first international match between two countries was played between United States of America (USA) and Canada in New York in 1844, but the fact that the International Cricket Council (ICC) did not exist in 1844, means this match wasn’t recognizes as an official game. The first official cricket match was played between Australia and England in Melbourne in 1877.
The first cricket World Cup was organized in 1975 in England, with the mighty West Indies walking away with the trophy.
How India destroying cricket for other countries?
India won just two matches in the 1975 and 1979 World Cup tournaments, the weakest team at that time. Wisden Sports magazine’s Chief Editor David Frith had infamously written in an article that a team like India should not play in the tournament if they have not improved and if a team like India wins, “I will eat my words.”
In the 1983 World Cup, India won four out of six matches in the group stage, cementing their place in the semi-finals where they defeated England by six wickets.
The final was played between India and West Indies, the hot favorite team after winning two World Cups in a row. All the odds were stacked against India, but the country created history on June 25, defeating West Indies at Lords, and lifting the Cup.
The historic win gave Narendra Kumar Prasadrao (NKP) Salve the confidence he needed to grab the mantle of the British’s own game from them. NKP Salve befriended Sri Lanka and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to form the Asian Cricket Committee, on which ICC had no control in 1984. They arranged a tournament between Asian teams, named Asia Cup. This was Salve’s way of telling Britishers that the southern countries could host tournaments too.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had no money to host a World Cup at first. Salve asked Pakistan to host the next world cup together. Then Salve contacted Dhirubhai Ambani with the help of Indira Gandhi. When the money was arranged, Mr. Salve put forth his proposal at the next ICC Meeting.
There was no rule before this that a new nation will host a World Cup. NKP Salve proposed a Rotational Policy. According to this policy “A new nation will host the World Cup after every four years.”
Australia and New Zealand agreed, . And when voting took place, India and Pakistan got the hosting of 1987 World Cup.
It was a success, but BCCI didn’t make any money 30 years ago. Even after the 83 tournament, Indian players would get INR 200 per day allowance and 1500 as match fees.
The South African cricket team was returning to international cricket in 1991 after a gap of 21 years and they were going to play their first three match ODI series against India.
At that time Indian television Doordrshan was broadcasting these matches and they were charging money for broadcasting instead of paying, and BCCI was just earning on tickets and on-ground advertisements.
But this time they kept the broadcasting rights in their hand and sold it to South African television channel for $200,000.
On the same year India opened their market for globalization foreign companies. New money started floating into India at the same time, these foreign companies wanted to market their products in India and nothing was watched more than cricket.
Because of satellite television, cricket was now seen even in small villages of India. It was great for these companies and BCCI. In 1993, India sold broadcast rights of England’s tour of India to a broadcasting company TWI for $600,000.
In no time, BCCI became the richest cricket board in the world. However, things change after you get rich. Remember, how NKP Salve grabbed 1987’s World Cup from England. It was decided according to rotational policy that England will host 1996’s World Cup.
But in 1996, a broadcaster named Mark Mascarhanes made an offer to BCCI that if India hosts the tournament, then he would give $ 14 million for broadcasting. BCCI liked the offer and got the hosting of 1996 World Cup.
But in 1996, Australia and West Indies refused to play their matches in Sri Lanka. Then a BCCI administrator Jagmohan Dalmiya thought, ICC’s next Chairman should be an Asian.
In 1997, Dalmiya contested ICC elections, and won.
But the question is, how?
Actually Mr. Dalmiya knew one thing, that most of ICC’s full time members would vote for the English Boards favorite candidate. At that time, associate teams had one vote each in these elections, but the representatives of these associate teams had no money to be present in the elections being held in London.
So Mr. Dalmiya bought tickets for representatives of associate teams, booked hotels in London for them, even hosted a dinner party for them before elections and when elections happened these representatives voted for Mr. Dalmiya and he won. Now an Indian was the boss of the world of cricket.
Indian Premier League (IPL) is the second richest sports league in the world, with a net worth surpassing 15 billion dollars but IPL is not the only T20 cricket league in the world. Every cricket Board has made their own cricket leagues, but BCCI does not allow their players to play in these leagues.
BCCI knows, value of these leagues might increase because of Indian viewership and if their value increases it might dilute the power of BCCI. So Indian players are not allowed to participate.
These boards have become so weak that they have to listen everything that BCCI orders because these boards only make money when India tours their countries. BCCI uses this very thing to get their things done in world cricket.
In 2012 England’s former Chief Justice submitted an independent report to ICC In which, he suggested some changes in governance. He felt that ICC shouldn’t be a Member Club Cricket Power is leaning to one side especially towards India. Associate nations aren’t getting enough funds, cricket won’t grow in these countries without funds.
BCCI takes the biggest share, ICC has only 12 full time members and 96 associate members. These members are underfunded. There is no chance that, cricket will grow in these countries without funds. Once $30,000 were given to the Chinese cricket board to improve cricket there. [2008 stats, current stats are not published]. China’s population is around 1.5 billion, how’s that even possible, that cricket will grow in country like China with such a small fund?
It’s not only about associate nations, even full time members are being further weakened. If we see the latest ICC Men’s Future Tours Program India will play most of the matches with top teams and with Zimbabwe and Ireland, India will play three and two matches respectively in five years, when Zimbabwe and Ireland are also full time members.
As far as the administrators of the game are concerned, they don’t care about West Indies Cricket. West Indies Cricket Board is bankrupt today, two times world champion team couldn’t even qualify for World Cup 2023, just because of lack of funds. How will these teams, cricket boards grow without the funds?
ICC is unofficially run by BCCI and instead of growing the game, they are shrinking it. In 2007’s World Cup, 16 teams played the tournament, and in 2023’s, only 10 teams participated. Apart from this there were 26 teams in International Association Football Federation (FIFA) World Cup 2006, and now there are 48 teams participating in 2026 World Cup.
You know why?
In 2007’s World Cup, India was eliminated early from the tournament, they could only play three matches. Broadcasters had to face a loss. If India had played more matches, broadcasters would have benefitted. BCCI reduced the teams and the format is designed in a way that India will definitely play nine matches.
BCCI doesn’t care about winning World Cups, they just want to make money. I feel, this sport should spread like football all around the world. With only 10 teams, it’s becoming boring and I think cricket has power to spread peace and happiness.
HowBCCI is killing Cricket:
You won’t believe it, from 2024 onwards, there will be no international cricket played for 2.5 months, only IPL. Isn’t this the murder of the sport we love so much?
Indian cricket is mostly run by Indian politicians and businessmen. Arun Jaitley’s son is president of Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA). Rajasthan’s CM’s Son Vaibhav Gehlot is President of Rajhistan cricket Association (RCA,) Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew is a President of Mumbai cricket association (MCA), Anurag Thakur, BJP politician, was a president Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) from there he became a president of BCCI.
Today his brother is a president of HPCA. Ashok Sigamani is president of Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA), the son of a Minister Jyotiradhitya Scindia is the president of Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA), his father was president of BCCI.
BCCI treasurer Chirayu Amin’s son Pranav Amin is Bihar cricket association (BCA)’s President, Sourav Ganguly’s brother is a President Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and the most fun example of this is Gujarat cricket associations former president was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He gave that post to Amit Shah after becoming Prime Minister and today, Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah is the secretary of BCCI and I’m only talking about a few states here.
Cricket shouldn’t be run by politicians and businessmen, it should be run by former cricketers, that’s it. I’m the biggest fan of cricket, like any Pakistani, I can’t bear to see one private organization is controlling the growth of this game. I want this sport to grow all over the world because this sport can do many good things.
Afghanistan cricket team is one such example, these players initially used to live in refugee camps, they played World Cup in 2015 and you know what, Afghanistan cricket was initially helped by Pakistan.
But it feels like there are people in BCCI who don’t care about the growth of this game. They just want to make money, they just want to keep their power safe, even if they have to kill this centuries old sport to achieve that.
Note: This information is collected from various platform, like cricket websites, YouTube, Facebook etc.
Rohit Sharma has led India from the front in their three unbeaten matches of the World Cup to boost his cricket-mad nation’s hopes of winning the title at home.
The Indian captain has already amassed 217 runs including a record century against Afghanistan, showing no signs of the pressure on his shoulders.
Rohit succeeded superstar Virat Kohli as white-ball captain in 2021 with the aim of securing the national team a third World Cup and first international title since the 2013 Champions Trophy.
Australia great Ricky Ponting lavished praise on Rohit for handling the pressure of the job with ease.
“Someone like Virat, who is a bit more heart-on-the-sleeve, and probably listens to the fans and plays up with the fans a little bit more, someone with his personality would probably find it a bit harder,” Ponting wrote in an International Cricket Council column on Tuesday.
“But I think Rohit will be fine with it. He’s a terrific bloke and has been a great player for a long time, and he’s done a great job as leader of India.”
Rohit, 36, has enjoyed franchise success as a skipper with five IPL titles with the Mumbai Indians and then led India to the Asia Cup title last month in a key test of form ahead of the World Cup.
That success would have helped ease a little of the pain suffered when, under his captaincy, India were defeated in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup in Australia last year.
Rohit has never let expectations get to him and Ponting, once his captain at Mumbai and then coach, said the veteran batsman takes pressure in his stride.
“He’s very laid back,” said Ponting. “You can even see that by the way that he plays. He’s a pretty laconic sort of batsman as well, and that’s the way he is both on and off the field.”
– ‘Nothing is impossible’ –
Rohit, an opening batsman nicknamed “Hitman” for his ability to get big scores quickly, was out for a duck in the team’s opening win against Australia, but was lauded for his captaincy moves.
He soon regained form with 131 against Afghanistan as he surpassed compatriot Sachin Tendulkar with a record seventh World Cup century.
His ton in 63 balls was the fastest by an Indian in a World Cup to better Kapil Dev’s hundred in 72 balls against Zimbabwe in 1983.
Rohit took his form to the hotly-anticipated clash with arch-rivals Pakistan and smashed a match-winning 86 to thrash the opposition as India climbed to the top of the 10-team World Cup table.
In his career, he has accumulated 10,329 ODI runs including 31 centuries in 254 matches since his debut in 2007.
Rohit, who was not selected for India’s last World Cup triumph at home in 2011, said he relishes the role of being leader.
“Nothing in life is impossible, you can make it possible if you have the belief,” Rohit said.
“If you trust in it, if you have the will to go forward, it’s everyone’s dream firstly to be part of the team and then to captain the team is definitely the icing on the cake. I never thought I would be captain one day.”
“I also believe that good things happen to good people. I kept my head straight, kept working hard on my game. I am sitting here today with a wonderful opportunity to bring glory to this beautiful country.”
Rohit’s deputy in the World Cup, Hardik Pandya praised the leader for his ability to bring the best out of players through his faith in them.
“Since he has come, he has backed a lot of boys and we see the result now as well with how the boys are going and expressing themselves,” all-rounder Pandya said.
“So that’s why Rohit has been special in giving them enough opportunity and at the same time telling them that ‘you know what, I got your back’.”
India has not granted a visa to any Pakistani journalist to cover the cricket World Cup 2023 yet and the International Cricket Council (ICC) has come up with a solution stating that questions can be asked via Whatsapp, provoking more anger.
As a temporary solution while Pakistani journalists await clearance for World Cup coverage in India, the ICC has introduced a method for them to submit their questions to an ICC media manager via WhatsApp. These questions will then be presented to the Pakistani representative attending the media conferences.
So magnanimous of the organisers to allow Pakistani journalists to send questions for Pak press conference in by WhatsApp ahead of Pakistan’s 2nd game pic.twitter.com/ruamIyRlD6
The ICC released a statement saying, “In addition to fielding questions from the present media, the Pakistani representative at the media conference will also respond to a selection of queries submitted by members of the Pakistani media who are still awaiting travel approval for the event.”
Expressing their disappointment, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has lodged a formal complaint with the International Cricket Council (ICC). Recent reports indicate that no Pakistani journalist was present at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad when Pakistan kicked off their World Cup campaign against the Netherlands last week.
The PCB conveyed their disappointment in a letter to the ICC, stating, “The PCB is dismayed by the uncertainty faced by Pakistani journalists and fans in obtaining Indian visas to cover Pakistan’s opening game in the ICC World Cup. Pakistani journalists and fans are expressing deep concern, putting us under immense pressure.”
In response, an ICC spokesperson commented, “We recognize the vital role played by journalists and passionate fans in elevating the spirit and ambiance of sporting events.”
“This is an obligation of our host and they are working hard on it with our full support. Every effort is being made to get this sorted,” an ICC spokesperson told The Current.
Pakistan Cricket Board Management Committee Chairman Mr. Zaka Ashraf has called upon Pakistan Foreign Secretary Syrus Sajjad Qazi and raised serious concerns and alarm over the delay in fans and journalists visas for India to cover the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.
The chairman also requested the Foreign Secretary to take up the issue with India’s Home Ministry through the Pakistan High Commission Office in New Delhi. The PCB has also taken serious notice of security threats being reported in Indian media and requested the government to evaluate player’s security in India. He emphasised that the well-being and safety of the Pakistan squad were of paramount importance.
PCB is extremely disappointed to see that journalists from Pakistan and fans are still facing uncertainty about obtaining an Indian visa to cover Pakistan games in ICC World Cup 2023. In the meantime, PCB has again reminded ICC and BCCI of their respective obligations and terms and conditions stipulated in the Host agreement to guarantee visas for fans and journalists of participating teams.
Pakistani Journalists are upset over this entire situation.
Abdul Ghaffar, a sporta Journalist wrote took to X (formerly Twitter),
“ICC instead of asking Pakistan Journo to send questions via Whatsapp must make sure well in advance that Pakistan Media gets visa on time and travelled,” he wrote.
Pakistan entire Media should boycott this (Whats App Question) as protest, ICC instead of asking Pakistan Journo to send question via whats app must make sure well in advance that Pakistan Media gets visa on time and travelled. Its indeed very shameful and disgusting, imagine if…
India won the Asia Cup title for a record eighth time by defeating defending champions Sri Lanka in the final of the Asia Cup 2023 on Sunday. India easily chased down Sri Lanka’s target of just 51 runs in 6.1 overs, winning the match by 10 wickets to become Asian champions.
Shubman Gul and Ishan Kishan remained unbeaten on 27 runs and 23 runs respectively for India.
It should be noted that India has won the title of Asia Cup the most times.
In the final played at Wilambo, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat against India, which turned out to be the wrong decision.
The Lankan batting started with a delay due to rain, but as soon as the match started, the Sri Lankan batting line-up was decimated, with 6 wickets down for just 12 runs. Sri Lankan players could not even enter double figures, with Kaushal Mendes becoming top scorer with 17 runs. Five Sri Lankan players were bowled out for zero.
India captain Rohit Sharma said on the occasion of the toss that if his team had won the toss, they would have batted first.
Former Indian cricketer Venkatesh Prasad on Saturday tweeted what many social media users believe was a cryptic tweet targeting Asian Cricket Council (ACC) President Jay Shah, who is also secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
“It takes one corrupt, arrogant guy to take away the hard work of an organisation that is generally non-corrupt and get a stamp of corruption on the whole leadership, not just on a micro level but at a large level.”
Prasad’s tweet made many X (former Twitter) users speculate if the former cricketer had targeted BCCI and Jay Shah, son of Indian Home Minister Amit Shah. However, Prasad soon deleted his tweet.
Indian journalist and fact-checker Mohammed Zubair posted a screenshot of the tweet deleted by Prasad.
AltNews co-founder Zubair was not the only one who posted a screenshot of Prasad’s deleted tweet. Many news outlets did a story on it as well. However, Prasad chose to target and abuse Zubair in a racist and bigoted tweet.
Prasad quote-tweeted Zubair and wrote: “Haha.. Says a serial hate- monger, who has put so many lives in danger for his agenda. You disguising as a fact-checker is like Terrorists talking about peace. Now post that you need money to survive and ask for donation for your website, no shame in living off by fooling people.”
Haha.. Says a serial hate- monger, who has put so many lives in danger for his agenda. You disguising as a fact-checker is like Terrorists talking about peace. Now post that you need money to survive and ask for donation for your website, no shame in living off by fooling… https://t.co/CjPrtAdC24pic.twitter.com/ei16dx1wPp
In response, Zubair said that he hopes Prasad will be forgiven for his tweet on BCCI by his “political masters for compensating by abusing and comparing” him to “terrorists”.
Hope you’ll be forgiven for your tweet on BCCI by your political masters for compensating by abusing and comparing me to “Terrorists”. https://t.co/aBQfOvUbWA
One user pointed out that Venkatesh Prasad’s manager is Amritanshu Gupta, a known right-wing BJP supporter, which is why Prasad’s language is of right-wing trolls.
If you were wondering why Venkatesh Prasad & Virender Sehwag were speaking language of RW Trolls. It’s because their business manager is a Right-Wing guy Amritanshu Gupta. #VenkateshPrasadpic.twitter.com/tuGEBtU4Nj
@venkateshprasad You aren’t a hatemonger? Calling someone “terrorist” just because he is Muslim and exposes all the fuckups of our govt doesn’t make him a terrorist for sure. He doesn’t carry hatred like you do.
Prasad posted a new version of his deleted tweet a day later.
It takes one corrupt, arrogant guy to take away the hardwork of an otherwise non-corrupt organisation and spoil the reputation of an entire organisation & the impact isn’t just micro but at a macro level. This is true in every field, be it politics,sports, journalistm, corporate.
Punjab Home Ministry has approved the use of bulletproof vehicles by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Chairman Roger Binny and Deputy Chairman Rajeev Shukla when they visit Lahore during the 2023 Asian Cup.
The BCCI Chairman and BCCI Vice-Chairman are expected to arrive in Lahore on September 4 and attend a dinner at Governor’s house on the invitation of Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Zaka Ashraf.
The Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) has asked the Punjab Department of Home Affairs to take back the two double-cab vehicles it had previously provided and send them bulletproof Mercedes and Land Cruisers.
Ministry of Home Affairs has approved PCB’s application and issued instructions to S&GAD. Roger Binny has already confirmed his and Rajeev Shukla’s visit to Pakistan.
On July 20, the International Cricket Council (ICC) shared a promo for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. Cricket fans around the world have strongly reacted to Babar Azam, number one ODI batter, being ignored by the ICC in its recently released World Cup promo in which Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan also made an appearance.
ICC tweeted: “History will be written and dreams will be realised at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. All it takes is just one day.”
History will be written and dreams will be realised at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023
Fans called out the ICC for its ‘bias’, not including Babar Azam in the promo and also for making the content more about the Indian cricket team and less about the World Cup.
Here are some tweets by fans who were not happy with the ICC:
Babar ko bhool gaye? Challo, he’ll help you guys write history at the matches. Game on hai, no matter how pathetic your official ad is. https://t.co/NLd21spIjK
ICC ODI World Cup promo without Babar Azam – the number one ODI batter since almost two years and the ODI cricketer of the year 2021 and 2022. https://t.co/oEuHUPu20d
This, however… utter ****. In thrall of India and England. Mentions Pakistan (and West Indies, oddly) in passing and in terms of needing sympathy. Cricket deserves better. https://t.co/m5YZ9dss02
