ICC News: Restructuring the ICC, BCCI Influence & more

[abhi_jacko]

Zaheer Abbas confirmed as ICC president | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

The ICC council also approved the admission of the Serbia Cricket Federation as the 58th Affiliate Member. The Affiliate Memberships of Morocco and Turkey were suspended, while Brunei was removed as an Affiliate.

 

[Cricket_god]

Lol Somebody was arguing about Fifa being a role model.

 

[War]

Not sure if its been released everywhere in the world - but i encourage every cricket fan on planetcricket who has interest in cricket administrative issues to watch this movie.

Jarod Kimber & Sam Collins have basically spent four years doing some tremendous digging to make this movie, which reminds me of how renowned journalist Andrew Jennings went on a one-man crusade to help expose FIFA all those years ago. Pretty much all the concerns I have listen in this thread for the last four years they have solidified and brought to life.

Movie is just what cricket needed if we really are going to change the way ICC is structured, limit/eradicate BCCI influence and potentially scrap the Big 3 [HASHTAG]#changecricket[/HASHTAG]

Death of a Gentleman (2015) - IMDb

Home | Death of a Gentleman

BBC Radio 5 live - Test Match Special, Death of a Gentleman 06 Aug 15

 

[Satan666]

Not sure if its been released everywhere in the world - but i encourage every cricket fan on planetcricket who has interest in cricket administrative issues to watch this movie.

Jarod Kimber & Sam Collins have basically spent four years doing some tremendous digging to make this movie, which reminds me of how renowned journalist Andrew Jennings went on a one-man crusade to help expose FIFA all those years ago. Pretty much all the concerns I have listen in this thread for the last four years they have solidified and brought to life.

Movie is just what cricket needed if we really are going to change the way ICC is structured, limit/eradicate BCCI influence and potentially scrap the Big 3 [HASHTAG]#changecricket[/HASHTAG]

Death of a Gentleman (2015) - IMDb

Home | Death of a Gentleman

BBC Radio 5 live - Test Match Special, Death of a Gentleman 06 Aug 15

Welcome back buddy, excellent video hopefully some ma#$ots actually watch it with interest.

 

[War]

Former Indian Premier League boss Lalit Modi admits to involvement in rebel cricket proposal

 

[War]

'Indian ruling should trigger change in WI' | Sports | Jamaica Gleaner

Meantime, Wilkins has accused the top three cricket-playing nations - India, Australia and England - of attempting to "isolate" West Indies and reduce their revenue from cricket.

Wilkins referenced the movie Death of a Gentleman which highlights the hijacking of the game by India, England and Australia as posing a threat to West Indies cricket.

"The West Indies is being isolated despite lip service paid by the big three to our importance to the game," he argued.

"For cooperating with the hijack, WICB were awarded the hosting in this year of the ICC annual meeting. What a grand prize. But India, Australia, and England grabbed for themselves all six international tournaments between 2015 and 2023."

 

[War]

 

[SpitfiresKent]

Not sure if its been released everywhere in the world - but i encourage every cricket fan on planetcricket who has interest in cricket administrative issues to watch this movie.

Jarod Kimber & Sam Collins have basically spent four years doing some tremendous digging to make this movie, which reminds me of how renowned journalist Andrew Jennings went on a one-man crusade to help expose FIFA all those years ago. Pretty much all the concerns I have listen in this thread for the last four years they have solidified and brought to life.

Movie is just what cricket needed if we really are going to change the way ICC is structured, limit/eradicate BCCI influence and potentially scrap the Big 3 [HASHTAG]#changecricket[/HASHTAG]

Death of a Gentleman (2015) - IMDb

Home | Death of a Gentleman

BBC Radio 5 live - Test Match Special, Death of a Gentleman 06 Aug 15

Looking forward to watching this

 

[War]

Jarrod Kimber: Cricket has given me everything; this is my chance of giving back - Latest Cricket News, Articles & Videos at CricketCountry.com


Jarrod Kimber: Cricket has given me everything; this is my chance of giving back

Jarrod Kimber (left) and Sam Collins: Men putting all at stake to change cricket for good. Photo Courtesy: Death of a Gentleman official website

Jarrod Kimber and Sam Collins could have chosen to make just another non-controversial cricket documentary. Instead, they chose to probe into the obscure gloom of corruption in the sport we have all grown up loving so much. They ended up making Death of a Gentleman, a documentary officially selected by Sheffield Doc/Fest 2015 and The Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival 2015, and almost certainly destined for more.


But it is not about the awards. Death of a Gentleman will leave you numb; it will scare you; it will leave you with a familiar dreadful feeling in your stomach — about the future of cricket. Will the sport survive the corrupt termites that are eating away at the insides with every passing day?

Before the final Test of Ashes 2015 at The Oval (10 AM, August 20, 2015), Jarrod and Sam will be observing a three-minute silence next to Hobbs Gate. The [HASHTAG]#ChangeCricket[/HASHTAG] mission is about the duo “reflecting on how the cricket boards of Australia, England & India have silenced the rest of world cricket.” It is a clarion call to other fans of the sport for “improved governance to preserve cricket for all”. READ: Three-minute silence to be observed before 5th Ashes Test at Oval to protest game’s administration

CricketCountry (CC): Why this initiative, Jarrod? What triggered this?

Jarrod Kimber (JK): It came from us making the film Death of a Gentleman, and then not wanting to stop. We didn’t feel comfortable with spending four years working on helping cricket, making a film, and then just hoping the film grabbed people’s attention. Especially because when we make the film, we wanted the people who felt as passionate as us to go on and do something. So that led to us forming changecricket.com, an action group that is looking to clean up the problems in world cricket. And while the film is a great calling card, we can only reach so many people with that. So when one of our supporters suggested doing an event at The Oval, we thought it was perfect. While The Ashes come to a close, we will use some of the people who are there to show how angry cricket fans are with what Australia, England and India by doing a three-minute silent protest. We are angry, others are angry, so we want people to stand up for cricket with us.

CC: When Kerry Packer had arrived with his purse close to four decades back, the purists were appalled; but in the long run players were benefitted. Have you considered the option that we are being too old-fashioned in our approach to IPL and other franchise-based Twenty20 tournaments across the world? Death of a Gentleman: Time to look at accumulated mess

JK: No. The IPL and other franchise leagues are great for players. Mind you, not all players benefit from these leagues: Associate players and Pakistani players (specifically in IPL) still struggle in those leagues.

That isn’t the problem. The problem is we don’t know whether T20 will always stay this popular. What if it dies? What if it gets less popular? What happens to other forms of the sport that have been not looked after? If T20 is a fad, not the answer and we put all our eggs into the basket, then that is a big problem.

Also, why has IPL not got its own window? It sucks everything into it, but that damages the rest of cricket as well. It can also do more good: there should be a Women’s IPL, for example; there should be Associate players in every squad. At the moment, without proper leadership, IPL is just accidentally stream-rolling everything in its path.

CC: You have been there during IPL matches. Cricket never needed cheerleaders or firecrackers to become popular. Do you feel we are outdated? Or is this a completely different sport?

JK: I don’t think any sport needs cheerleaders; certainly not IPL. It’s like a cult, a mega-church of cricket. It’s packaged so well. The crowd is so well-trained and happy to play along already. It needs hype. And noise. And colour. But this isn’t purely a sport; it’s ‘cricketainment.’ I honestly have no problem with that.

But I wish the fans would be weaned onto other forms of cricket. I don’t care if only 5 per cent of them come across, but I care that cricket tries. Otherwise we have discovered a form of cricket that can get to women, children and non-traditional cricket fans, and we’ve done little with them other than milk them. We should use T20 to spread the game and move it forward. It is a gift: only in cricket would we moan about it and not get it right.

CC: Coming to the crux now: Death of a Gentleman, more than anything else, has dealt with corruption. As we all sensed, that was merely the tip of the iceberg. How murky is it?

JK: It’s an impossible question to answer. I believe there is a lot out there, of varying levels. One question I constantly ask myself is if BCCI make billions each year, where does the money go? Why don’t we know? What we really need is our own Andrew Jennings to look into this.

Sam [Collins; co-director of Death of a Gentleman] and I have certain skills (although not many), but what needs to happen next is a proper investigative journalist looking into cricket’s finances, and the relationships between the Chairman; and then, answer that important question, why these people are so keen to hold on to non-paying positions.

Cricket journalists are not equipped for things like this, but there are journalists out there who are. Hopefully we inspire some through changecricket.com and the film to get out there and start sniffing. Lalit Modi’s Twitter stream might be a place to start.


WHEN MY SON GROWS UP, I STILL WANT HIM TO SEE SRI LANKA PLAY. AND THAT IS WHY I FIGHT. IF YOU LOVE THE GAME, YOU WILL HAVE YOUR OWN REASON. BUT STAND UP FOR CRICKET. IT HAS GIVEN US SO MUCH. IT IS TIME TO GIVE BACK.


CC: The arrogance of the administrators, as seen on the documentary, was almost too hard to digest. The haughtiness is obviously derived from complete disdain for the sport and its fans. How long can cricket sustain, if the sole aim of the administrators is to milk the sport dry — even at the cost of its future?

JK: I remember one of our directors, Johnny Blank, being surprised at how Giles Clarke allowed himself to look that arrogant on camera. Other than Modi, only Neil Maxwell really came across as a cricket administrator who seemed to care about fans. It was odd.

The problem with making short-term decisions, in business or politics, is that when the market changes, you have not prepared. What if people get sick of IPL? What if cricket isn’t the number one sport in India anymore? But then, even if that doesn’t happen, and cricket keeps contracting to India, Australia and England, what of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, or West Indies, or Ireland, Afghanistan or Nepal?

Cricket isn’t about the big three, they just have the best markets, something their boards have had very little to do with. But will cricket be as fun without Pakistani fast bowlers, without Kiwi captains, without AB de Villiers splaying for his nation? The game may never completely disappear, but it may climb up the arse of the Big Three and then never be the same again.

How is that worth it? And how is that a good business plan? Pepsi are the second biggest soft-drink on earth, but they don’t run away from markets that Coke is big in. They find ways to crack them. They win over small markets, and build that way.

To basically say to a fifth of the world’s population “we don’t want your business” at the time when cricket outside Test nations is at its strongest is poor business, arrogance and over-reliant on the fact Indians currently love cricket. Wasn’t hockey the biggest sport in India once? Things change. READ: Death of a Gentleman’ documentary casts cloud over future of Test cricket

CC: Most of us prefer to remain armchair critics, while you dared to take the initiative. Do you realise that if your mission does not come off, you will be putting your career as journalist and writer at stake? If yes, why did you risk it?

JK: I don’t really think that way. I am a high-school dropout who at 27 was parking cars for a living when I started a cricket blog. Now I know Rahul Dravid, have seen cricket in New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka, and South Africa, visit Lord’s for two Tests a year, have written forWisden, have my own IMDB profile, have played at The Oval, seen World Cup finals, a few India vs Pakistan matches, commentated from my other home (the MCG), and am writing for the first website I ever used. I have already won.

Even if I am banned from cricket grounds or people in cricket no longer care for me because this campaign goes nowhere, I at least tried. No one can say I didn’t give it my all. Cricket has given me everything from birth. This is my chance of giving back. I think I have given a fair whack, and at least we started a proper conversation.

I think by finishing this film we have won, by getting it in cinemas, by getting it in the papers, all wins. If cricket no longer wants me afterwards, I’ll still watch it, I’ll still play it; they can’t stop that. They can’t stop me questioning them, or my love, and that’s what matters. And I’ll use everything I’ve learnt in cricket in my next career.

CC: Tell us more about the three-minute silence before The Oval. What is the volume of support you are expecting? Do you plan to take this to other grounds? What about Dubai?

JK: We want to show that it’s not just Sam and I who care; that other cricket fans, writers and people who love the game care as much as we do. We want to force newspapers to keep writing about this. To follow it. To change cricket with us. We have no idea how many people will come, so it’s a gamble. But the careers of Sam and I have been gambles, as was the film, so why would we stop here?

Also, at this stage we’re not thinking of other grounds, but who knows? A week ago we hadn’t thought of this. Things move quickly.

CC: Where does the sport go from here? Realistically, do you think there is light at the end of the tunnel?

JK: Of course there is light. You write about the history of cricket, and yet cricket almost always overcomes. Sri Lanka waited almost a 100 years to play Test cricket, and within 15 years they were the best ODI team in the world.

Think Basil D’Oliveira and Apartheid. West Indies got 200,000 people lining up to see them in the streets of Melbourne when black people couldn’t migrate to Australia. Rachael Heyhoe-Flint went all but door to door to promote women’s cricket, and now women are professional.WE have to believe, but for the first time, we have to fight. We have to stand up. We have to get involved and can’t let this keep going. It is now up to us.

CC: Despite the corruption, do you feel the love for the sport still exists at grass-root level — in Australian backyards and the English villages and Indian alleys? It will not be rational to expect cricket to be back at her pristine best, but do you feel the innocence will ever be back?

JK: Has cricket ever had a pristine best, perhaps when it was a street game in the 1600s in England? Other than that, bad things have always gone on in cricket. That doesn’t change the game. The game is beautiful. I have a two-year old, and I remember the first time he hit a ball, that smile. They can f**k up how the game is run, they can ruin the way we enjoy it at the top level, they can ruin the spread of the game; but they can’t stop people from enjoying that feeling of bat on ball.

But when my son grows up, I still want him to see Sri Lanka play. And that is why I fight. If you love the game, you will have your own reason. But stand up for cricket. It has given us so much. It is time to give back.

***

To the readers:

In case you are still wondering what the [HASHTAG]#ChangeCricket[/HASHTAG] is about, you may want to read this text from the official website:

We want cricket to embrace independent governance at the International Cricket Council as recommended by the Woolf Report and Transparency international. This would then facilitate:

1) Reversal of the decision to cut the number of teams at the 2019 World Cup;

2) Cricket becoming an Olympic Sport;

3) A re-examination of, and change to, cricket’s revenue distribution.

 

[grkrama]

Should possibly get it on youtube if they want to spread the message, also just checked the pricing in london theatres 18 pounds is that the normal pricing there ?

Some valid points though im not sure on the spreading of cricket, as it would be more spreading t20. What i want to see first is preservation test cricket outside the three, especially WI and PAK, also try to do something about zim.

Otherwise all i can see is spreading of T20 epidemic and bermuda premier league, Japan Cricket blaster, Chinese dragon ball league etc.

I would also make if a new nation has to become associate at the very least they have to be ODI standard team.

This will make sure the player who grow in those countries are more in tune with the essence of game, and spread it down their system.

T20 should be like the fun night out not the regular diet. Especially to the newer members.

By setting the bar high at the entrance it will actually help in the long run to preserve the game's essence and nature.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

So, basically we're not going to see a world t20/world cup or champions trophy in SA?

 

[War]

Cricket is the second most popular sport in the world but is being run into the ground due to the self-interest of its three richest members – Australia, England and India. Meanwhile we, the fans who contribute so much to the game, have no idea how or where our money is spent while our game shrinks.

 

[IceAgeComing]

just checked the pricing in london theatres 18 pounds is that the normal pricing there ?

It costs about £10-12 for an adult cinema ticket here (I think, I usually did the student + orange wednesdays thing so I actually don't know), I'd say that £18 is very slightly above average when you factor in that this is a niche film and that everything is always a lot lot more expensive in London and South East England than it is up here. Perhaps some posters from that bit of England can say if I'm wrong though. Unfortunately I missed out on the only two Scottish showings but I probably couldn't have gone anyway, they're in Edinburgh and it'd have been tight with getting the last train home. Shame though; there's a market for another showing: its the only September showing sold out at this point which says something I think!

 

[War]

Former ICC boss incensed at Pakistan's Windies-killing u-turn | Digicel SportsMax


Former ICC boss incensed at Pakistan's Windies-killing u-turn

Ehsan Mani, a former International Cricket Council (ICC) president doesn't believe Pakistan is playing fair and have slammed the country's board for it.

The statements come in the wake of a situation where the West Indies and Pakistan were vying for the final spot in the eight-team Champions Trophy in 2017, with Pakistan nipping the spot after a 3-2 series win over Sri Lanka.

To make the Champions Trophy, teams have to be ranked in the top eight by September 30, 2015, but Pakistan are being accused of rigging the chase after they cancelled a tri-nation series against Zimbabwe and the West Indies once they had earned enough points to overtake them after their series against Sri Lanka.

“The fact that Pakistan has pulled out of the tri-series is simply not cricket and goes against the spirit of the game,” said Mani of the cancelled series scheduled to have been held from August 17-September 7.

Pakistan, since that time, rescheduled the dates they were available to play to September 24 - October 5.

The Pakistan team is ranked eighth with 90 points on the ICC 50 overs table, but are just two ahead of the West Indies, who are ranked ninth on 88 points.

“Unfortunately, since the ICC meddled with the binding nature of the Future Tours Programme (FTP) last year, there is no obligation on any country to stick to commitments made to tour unless these have been confirmed in a binding contact,” said Mani.


“This free for all nature of tour commitment opens it to manipulation which is exactly what has happened in this case. It also shows just how blindly the cricket boards agreed to the changes in the FTP without understanding the consequences.”


Mani's stance on the situation is made all the more interesting because he is of Pakistani descent. The former ICC president held the reigns of the international governing body of the sport from 2003-2006.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

^What's stopping the West Indies from touring Zimbabwe for a short ODI tour in order to try and earn some more ranking points?