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BCCI's invitation for Azharuddin makes ICC see red

The ICC found objection to the Board’s decision to felicitate the former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin who is under a life ban.

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The apex body doesn’t seem to approve of BCCI’s  decision to felicitate ‘banned’ Azharuddin

MUMBAI: Ambush marketing. Twenty20. Champions Trophy. World Cup. MPA. Awards nite. Now Mohammad Azharuddin... On Thursday, the ICC found objection to  the Board’s decision to felicitate the former India captain who is under a life ban.

In a statement to DNA, an ICC spokesman said: “The ICC has a zero tolerance to corruption and we would encourage our members to have that same zero tolerance to avoid the game once again being dragged through the gutter, as it was six years ago when the news of leading players’ involvement in match-fixing became public.”

Expectedly, the Board’s reaction was sharp and instant. “It is an internal matter of the BCCI,” said its secretary Niranjan Shah. “Besides, the matter is sub-judice.”

The Azhar case is just an addition to a long list of issues on which the Board of Control for Cricket in India and International Cricket Council don’t see eye-to-eye. But the two cannot be separated.

India is the largest cricketing nation in the ICC fold. The population of all the cricketing nations combined is about 50 per cent of India’s population. About 80 per cent of ICC’s revenue is from this country and growth of interest for the game is nowhere in the world as much as in India.

If Lalit Modi says the ICC cannot market its media rights for more than $50 million without India’s participation, it surely is not a baseless statement. ICC sold its media rights in 2000 for $550 million of which over 60-70 per cent was contributed by an Indian television company.

What’s more, the ICC’s television rights for seven years is less than BCCI’s income for four years from the same source. The BCCI sold the media rights for four years for $ 612 million.

Now BCCI thinks that the new Members Participation Agreement, which the ICC wants every Board to sign, is detrimental to India’s interest. One of the clauses, apparently, is that ICC, at any time, can change and alter the conditions unilaterally. The Indian Board has also serious objections to the ambush marketing clauses in the MPA.

The problems between the are proliferating by the day and there is sign of a ceasefire from either side.

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