While the period of transition has been a difficult for Ashraf, he made a big revelation on his predecessor over his recent interaction during an ICC meeting.
It has been over a month since Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-backed Zaka Ashraf took over the chairmanship of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) following the unceremonial departure of his predecessor Najam Sethi. And during the opening month, PCB witnessed two big decisions being made – one, with the re-appointment of Inzamam-ul-Haq as selection committee head, and the other with the national men’s team getting a clearance from the government to travel to India for the 2023 ODI World Cup. And while the period of transition has been a difficult affair for Ashraf, he made a bombshell revelation on his predecessor over his recent interaction during an ICC meeting.
Speaking to Geo Super, Ashraf revealed that he had met BCCI secretary Jay Shah during an ICC meeting and urged the board members of the apex body to take international cricket forward. He then revealed that even though Pakistan’s revenue share doubled, the shares of other member nations were deducted and that of BCCI’s was increased.
Ashraf said that he had asked for the revenue calculation from the ICC heads, but was replied saying that Sethi was made aware of it. He insisted that the papers weren’t with Sethi, but the ICC chairman later revealed twice that the former was shown all the calculations and that he even agreed to all of it.
“I met Jay Shah and other board members, and I insisted that we should take the international cricket forward together. I believe we will be better together. This time, our revenue-sharing with the ICC doubled. But they deducted other countries’ shares and increased India’s and we took a stand. I also gave a deciding vote, I told them you haven’t given us a calculation on how India’s revenue-sharing increased. They said they had given the calculations to Najam Sethi. I told them I’ve checked with him, and he doesn’t have it,” he said. “But the ICC chairman insisted twice that they had shared all the calculations with Mr. Sethi, and that latter even agreed to all of them.”
Notably, last month, during ICC’s meeting in Durban, BCCI reaffirmed its status as the financial powerhouse in world cricket after ICC passed the revenue distribution model. While the official figures were not disclosed by the apex body, BCCI is set to annually earn $230 million from the $600 million pot for the next four years, implying 38.4 per cent of the share and close to six times more that England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), who stands second on the list.
“The BCCI has in recent years bolstered its global standing as a visionary board under the astute leadership of Jay Shah in the pantheon of cricket, wherein the BCCI has lead by example be it the WPL, pay parity for women or the proliferation of the sport globally with the IPL,” Arun Dhumal, IPL chairman and BCCI’s representative in Chief Executives Committee (CEC), had later said in a statement shared by the BCCI.
“It was thus, just a matter of time before it’s contributions to the game of cricket were recognised by the ICC the apex governing body for cricket globally. The BCCI would like to express its gratitude and appreciation to the ICC for approving the revamped revenue-distribution model during the ICC’s AGM in Durban,” added Dhumal.
Source : Hindustan Times
