25 March 2024 last updated at 19:12 GMT
 
BCCI won't take ICC's attempt to tamper with IPL kindly: BCCI
Tuesday 05 March 2019

The International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Monday that "some outstanding T20 leagues, including the IPL" have set the "gold standard" for operations globally and its objective "is to ensure other leagues around the world put in place the same minimum criteria and operate within a consistent framework".

The ICC's statement came a day after TOI reported that the global body was trying to put a uniform policy in place for all T20 leagues across the world to which the BCCI had said a categorical "no" in the recent ICC chief executives meeting.

The ICC statement further says: "Reports (in the Indian media) that ICC is somehow seeking to interfere in or dictate to the IPL are wide of the mark. That is not the case".

The statement, nevertheless, hasn't gone down well with the BCCI, which reiterated on Monday that the parent body has no locus standi in the IPL in any way whatsoever. According to the BCCI's new constitution, the Governing Council is the league's final authority.

On ICC's move to set up a working group to put in place same minimum criteria (as IPL) and operate within a consistent framework, BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry said: "The ICC is good with words but the substance of their intent is pretty obvious over the past couple of years.

"They see that for their purposes, BCCI as an organisation in this period of transition is not the force that it was. They see the issues that have existed with regard to the holding of the General Meetings, the forum that decides on policy matters.

"Therefore, the ICC has been making a push, albeit a push camouflaged in pretty words, to intrude upon the sovereignty of the BCCI vis-à-vis the ICC. Whether it is the attempt to govern the inter-board relations or the attempt to gain granular information about the operations of the BCCI and its members, and now the attempted intrusion in the IPL".

'Will not tolerate move'

The BCCI office-bearer is of the clear view that it will be "prudent" for the ICC to understand that "the BCCI will not take kindly to any attempt to tamper with the IPL in a direct or a roundabout manner".



BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, who attended the chief executives meeting of the ICC, told TOI after the ICC statement: "The BCCI is of the firm view that the IPL is a domestic property of the BCCI. The prerogative of setting rules and regulations of the IPL rest with the BCCI".



His comment was in reply to ICC's statement that the governing body's "primary objective is to ensure other leagues around the world put in place the same minimum criteria and operate within a consistent framework".



Meanwhile, all members of the BCCI are unanimous in their stand that the ICC is going about "trying to pull off a coup" on the Indian board, given the administrative setbacks that prevail right now.



"What are these strategy groups? Does the (ICC) chairman (Shashank Manohar) have any grasp over why these strategy groups have been formed and how they function? For instance, there's a strategy group on 'cricket' but has no cricketer on it. Similarly, there's a strategy group on T20 leagues, but there's nobody with any experience of running a T20 league who sits in that group. Is this some joke?" ask members.

ICC lacks strong leadership in current times: ex-CEO Lorgat
The former ICC boss said barring Khawaja's peace slogans on shoes showed ICC lacked consistency in applying its rules
Waugh warns cricket boards for ignoring Test cricket
Australia Great Warns ICC, BCCI Over 'Irrelevant Legacy'