CHENNAI: The BCCI’s newly-formed apex council will have its first meeting with all nine members in New Delhi on Sunday. Along with releasing funds for the Indian Cricketers’ Association, appointing an ombudsman and ethics officer and chalking out the Indian team’s T20I schedule for 2021, devising a revenue-share model is also expected to be part of discussions.
Under the existing arrangement, 26 per cent of the BCCI’s earnings from TV rights and other channels goes to the players. The rest is divided equally among the state units. Before the structural reforms, the number of associations was 29.
After the structural revamp and inclusion of new associations, this number has gone up to 36. A section of board members are of the opinion that the new entrants — mainly the states from the Northeast — should not get an equal share of the spoils. They say that infrastructure and facilities in those places are still at a nascent stage. So they should be getting less than the associations which have been running cricket for a long time. Deliberations on this are likely at the meeting of the apex council, which is the board’s highest decision-making body.
“Do you think it’s alright if Mumbai and Mizoram get the same amount? There is no comparison between what the older associations spend on development or running local cricket and what the new associations would be spending. Let’s give them a smaller amount, to begin with and increase it gradually after assessing how they are doing and how much more they need,” said a former board official.
Releasing the share of profits for the associations was stopped by the Supreme Court for non-compliance in October 2016. Around that time, 29 units used to get around Rs 30 crore annually. Although the BCCI is back being governed by elected officials, funds have not been released yet.
By unconfirmed estimates, the annual share of each unit is expected to increase following the record IPL broadcast deal.BCCI sources following developments said that there have been informal discussions about devising a new model wherein the older units get more. “However, this is not final. Some of the members have raised this issue. But whether the share for the new states should be less or equal is a call that the apex council will take.”