“Certainly not happy at all.” – This is what Sikandar Raza had to say after winning the man of the tournament award. Sikandar Raja is a Zimbabwean cricketer and receiver of the Man of the Tournament award of the World Cup Qualifiers 2019.
Zimbabwe had failed to qualify for the Cricket World Cup 2019 to be held in England. Zimbabwe cricket does not have a lot of matches coming up and hence their future lies entrenched in a web of unpredictability. Cricket is supposed to be a game of glorious unpredictability. But an unpredictable future for cricketing is not at all desirable. Not for the country, the fans and certainly not for the sport.
“When I was a kid, I thought cricket was a game to unite, bring together players from different backgrounds but unfortunately that will not happen in the next World Cup,” – Raza further added.
It’s not only Raza who’s upset with the antics of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Other players from both the associate and full member countries have slammed the organization too.
“It has to be put back into the game because if countries don’t have a World Cup to look forward to or the possibility of getting to the World Cup,”said Ireland’s captain, William Portfield.
“If they actually give that carrot, dangle it in front of countries, surely cricket is going to get better in those countries and actually expand. I’m not just saying that because we didn’t get there but I feel sorry for a lot of countries that are leaving here that don’t know what’s going to happen next week.”
Why the ICC Needs to Look Beyond the Big Three
In 2014, ICC adopted a ‘Big Three’ strategy where three countries (England, Australia and India) would get a higher share of the revenues and more governing and executive powers. To put it bluntly, these three countries would control ICC and hence world cricket.
Needless to say, this was detrimental for the rest of the countries. More money for the Big Three meant less money for the rest of the members.
There was a public demonstration at Oval against this and even a campaigning film titled ‘The Death of a Gentleman’ was made.
This ‘Big Three’ agenda was dismissed in 2017. All the boards wanted more equitable governance and fairer share of revenues. India’s share of profit from then broadcast deal could be cut up to £180 million if the change went through. The Board of Control for Cricket in India tried hard to swing the votes in its favor but not one country was on their side.
The World Cup Needs More Nations, Not Fewer
14 teams participated in the 2015 World Cup. For 2019, that number has been reduced to 10. It means that associate countries will compete harder with another other but after a certain point, to compete they’ll need more resources. Where will that resource come from if they don’t have money?
When most of other sports’ federations and councils are spending huge sums on making their sports global, why is ICC trying so hard to shrink the circle of cricketing nations? Does it not want more countries to come up with cricket teams?
Does ICC want cricket to be a sport of a elite few?
Associate countries like Zimbabwe, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland are crestfallen due to missing out on the World Cup. The future of cricket in the mentioned countries are at stake. There are not enough matches, or as many matches as the cricketers would like to play in their fixtures.
The additional revenue that countries receive from participating in the World Cup is missing. Though the amount received is a meagre one even that will be gone. Associate countries have considerable financial problems which means they cannot avail all the resources such as the DRS system.
It is only during World Cups that nations like Kenya or Scotland get to play giants like India and Australia. They will be deprived of the experience, the atmosphere and the pressure of playing big matches. If you do not play against top tier teams, you will not be fully aware of your caliber.
Is Cricket Not a Global Sport Anymore?
You will be surprised (or not) to hear that BCCI was against making cricket an Olympic sport. Now that ICC has BCCI’s green signal, it has started the process of integrating cricket in 2028 Olympics. Apart from that, resuming international cricket in Pakistan is another of ICC’s agendas but this one will take time to materialize.
The annual T10 league in UAE does not have much to contribute towards the development of the game. It’s just an annual two day tournament.
To increase viewership and visibility of cricket, perhaps franchise cricket is the only option.
That’s where all the cricketers get to play. It’s a twenty over game. Fans cheer for their home team, enjoy the fours and sixes and occasionally the super overs and have a good time.
But what about international cricket? International cricket has a long way to go. But thanks to ICC, it is going backwards.
The Indian Problem Persists
One of the reasons why ICC does not want to include lesser teams in the World Cup is because they cause upsets. Who could have anticipated that Kenya would play in the semifinals of World Cup 2003 or Bangladesh would let India out of the World Cup in 2007? India’s exit meant the tournament lost spectators and ICC lost revenue.
ICC, for sure does not want repetition of these kind of scenarios. More matches for big teams mean more money.
That’s the ideal situation for ICC and it wants to keep it that way. New rivalries like Bangladesh vs India will not come up if these circumstances prevail.
India continues to stifle development of world cricket. Although the Indian Premier League (IPL) attracts the best cricketers from around the world, the BCCI refuses to allow Indian players to take part in other international T20 tournaments. This is because, perhaps, it doesn’t want future competition for the IPL.
Is this sustainable? How long will people watch the giants play?
Won’t they get bored? And when they do, what will they watch? There aren’t any teams that have been given the opportunity to develop as much as the big guns. Cricket, as a sport will suffer.
The world isn’t waiting for World Cup 2019. Cricket crazy nations like India, Bangladesh and a handful of fans in the other participating countries are. The associate countries are too heartbroken to care and the rest of the world probably doesn’t know the game exists.
It appears that cricket is destined to remain a colonial game. How strange, however, that India flipped the tables on the script and is now taking its own turn in depriving minnows from reaping the benefits of a global game. History does repeat itself.