ICC warns India(cricinfo)

Indian threaten the Future Tours Programme

ICC warns India of responsibilties

Cricinfo staff

January 17, 2006

The ICC chief executive, Malcolm Speed, has written to Niranjan Shah, the honorary secretary of the BCCI, to issue an unusually forthright reminder of India's duties to the worldwide cricket community.

The response from the ICC comes after India announced plans to break away from the Future Tours Programme (FTP) ,by playing Australia in three consecutive years, and said they would not play any future Champions Trophy events, following the 2006 tournament.

"I have read a number of media reports emanating from the BCCI in which you and other BCCI officials are quoted as spokesmen on behalf of the board," said Speed. "The President [Ehsan Mani] and I are both very concerned that BCCI is moving ahead and taking what appear to be unilateral decisions that are contrary to ICC policy as agreed by the ICC members including the BCCI."

There is nothing to stop countries arranging tours outside of the FTP, but there is a fear that India are trying to reorganise the international calendar to maximise their income.

"I wish to remind the BCCI of three important decisions that have been taken by the ICC and IDI [the commercial arm of the ICC] boards in recent times. At its meeting in Auckland on March 9, 2004, the ICC executive board resolved to adopt the ICC [tours programme].

"The effect of this decision is that the FTP is binding on all of the members of the ICC, including the BCCI. Any attempt by a member to amend it unilaterally without the consent of the ICC board is invalid."

The letter from Speed also outlined the decisions that had been agreed at the ICC meeting in Sydney during October. This included the ICC staging a major event each year until 2015, although this plan has been disrupted with the poor response to the Super Series. Speed confirmed the priority for scheduling matches, making it clear that tours outside the FTP were at the bottom of the list. The order explained in the letter is the following:


ICC Events;


FTP Tours;


Regional events such as the Asia Cup and the Afro-Asia Cup;


Series involving Associate Members;


Any additional bilateral series outside the FTP.

Speed continued: "With the greatest of respect to the BCCI, could I urge you to take these decisions into account when you are considering scheduling of matches."

He explained that the next appropriate forums to discuss ICC policy were the chief executives' committee and executive board meetings scheduled for February and March 2006.
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Indian board is only concerned about how to make money and does not care about giving teams like bangladesh chance to tour India.
It is one of the richest boards but still it only want teams that make alot of money for it to tour india, it is sad just a case of the board want to be filthy rich and does not care about International Commitements.
should India be banned for this blatant disregards for ICC?

There are two issues here:

1. About making money, and I dont see anything wrong with it as long as the Indian public is given a regular dosage of 12-14 tests and 25-30 ODIs per year. The current ICC schedule revolves around the domestic seasons of Eng and Aus, which is wrong.

2. About playing minnows. There are far too many minnow tests being held and I feel away tours of minnows should be stopped till they improve their game significantly.

I think India has a valid point when it comes to playing Minnows but there how can you make a claim Mr.Googly that India plays with minnows more then any other country?

If no is willing to play these countries how they will improve. India also have to realize that they are not going to be the so called 2nd best team in the world. Indian players like everyone else will retire and then they will have a phase of rebuilding. You all must remember the late 80's and early 90's. When there was the saying "Tendulkar out and india lost".

I think BCCI have to be realistic they are only one who said they will not play the ICC Trophy okay if they are playing and they want the Oct 2007 to be empty for them to have a series with Australia or England who are they going to play if all the other major countries are part of ICC Champions Trophy?

Good points. Let me try to get to them:

1. I am not saying ignore the minnows completely. But they should be confined only to their home series. Do you think they improve by getting pastings from all around the world? Plus, revenues for them are much higher in their home series.

2. October is cricket season in India. Why should India sacrifice its cricket season every second year to take part in the ICC trophy? Ask England to host the ICC trophy in July or Australia/SA in Dec and they'll give ICC the boot. Why was the ICC trophy played in wet September when it was held in England and India are being asked to host it in their prime season?

Hopefully this spells the beginning of the end for this Mickey Mouse competition. When I dragged myself along on a chilly October day (courtesy of a half price ticket bought on E-Bay) to watch England play Australia, the ground was barely a quarter full. Had England not made the final, then that would have been played in front of next to nobody, too!

The Future Tours Programme is overcrowded, and binning the ICC trophy seems to me to be an excellent idea. It's a competition that nobody except the ICC itself seems to want.

As far as minnows are concerned, cricket in Zimbabwe is finished for the forseeable future. Why the ICC fail to to recognise this, only they know. Strip Zimbabwe of its Test status, and that only leaves Bangladesh, who are certain to eventually improve sufficiently to justify their Test status.

Good on India I say.

Nobody wants to watch minnows. Sorry but that's the truth.

As many others have pointed out, there should be different grades for international cricket, with the top test grade restricted to 8 teams. A lot of the minnows should be playing first class domestic competitions in England, Australia, SA, etc.

We shouldn't have to watch the top test teams playing international cricket against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in tests when we could be watching much more competitive and entertaining cricket. Playing against the minnows also devalues statistics and records.

I would like to see top grade test cricket limited to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, West Indies, Australia, South Africa, New zealand and England. Every 2 or 4 years, the lowest ranked test team would have to play the highest ranked minnow team for a place in the top grade.

I would also limit the world cup to include just 2 minnow teams, not 4 or 5. All the minnows could play each other in a round robin for those 2 spots.

if india don't want to play in champions trophy who cares? its still good competition and as far as i'm concerned indian fans will be missing out not anyone else...the bcci is obviously trying to exert its influence, but i don't see the icc caving in...if they do, good on india and the subcontinent...if they don't, i won't give two hoots whether india is there or not...

If India doesn't wanna play in the champions trophy, then thats their decision.

why try and force them to play ? its their team, they can choose whether or not they want to play

If India dont play , money will not flow. ICC will not benefit much and hence they want India.