The International Cricket Council (ICC) has identified the problem in taking the game to uncharted territories and ensure cricket is sustainable for all its members as an ‘over-dependence’ on Indian money. But the solution it has suggested is bizarre, as it relies even more on Indian icons, markets and moolah to fix the so-called problem! Somebody is not thinking straight.
In a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis done by the ICC as part of its strategy document before its meeting today with Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) officials and the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators, the world body lays out under ‘Weaknesses’ two issues with regard to India. First, it says, Cricket’s “not truly a global sport -- (because of) heavy dependence on revenues and fans from India. Secondly, it flags the “lack of aggressive expansion/growth strategy to counter over-reliance on India.”
The ICC’s suggested solutionIJ Enlist the services of mainly Indian/Indian-origin global influencers of the sport such as Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai and Indira Nooyi. It is truly laughable that ICC imagines using Indians to end what it terms an over-reliance on Indians is a solution. The money, fans, infrastructure, interest and glamour in Brand Cricket, as it were, depends on India for a reason. Indians love the game, are very good at it in all formats and are now proving increasingly adept at running it too. What the ICC is complaining about really is only the shift in the balance of power over the past decade or two from England-Australia to India. And, of course, the threat to its own existence in its current form.