Published: Dec 22, 2018, 02:26 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 22, 2018, 02:26 PM (IST)
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has reportedly asked the BCCI to pay USD 23 million [INR 160 crore approx] before the end of 2018 or it could lose the hosting rights of Champions Trophy 2021 and 50-over World Cup in 2023.
The amount demanded by cricket’s governing body relates to the tax deductions when India hosted the 2016 ICC World T20. The ICC didn’t get waiver from neither central or the state government and so it now wants the Indian cricket board to compensate it for the same.
Failure to do so will result in ICC deducting the amount from BCCI’s share of revenue for the current fiscal year. The demand reportedly finds a mention in the minutes of ICC board meeting that took place earlier this year in Singapore.
On the other hand, BCCI has denied the existence of any such document and asked the ICC to share the minutes where the board agreed to pay the amount. Sources allege that the current state of affairs is just an extension of the personal animosity between ICC’s independent chairman Shashank Manohar and former BCCI president N Srinivasan.
“The ICC hasn’t provided any minutes to the BCCI yet,” The Times of India quoted sources as saying. “And now, the ICC is shying away from sharing any minutes because they don’t have any. They just want to recover that money from India. There are indications that this bickering over tax-related matters is only an extension of the acrimony that ICC’s present independent chairman and Srinivasan have shared over a period of time. Time and again, Shashank has targeted BCCI for his own personal agenda.”
The report further quoted a senior BCCI member as saying, “It’s become fashionable to blame BCCI. Biting the hand that feeds, eh? Is that what it has come down to? A sports body that has economic value primarily because it feeds on India’s commercial stake in the game is telling India that it cannot host a World Cup? And that too with an Indian heading that organisation right now? What a joke.”
