Buckling under pressure from its media partners, the International Cricket Council on Tuesday has called for an impromptu Board meeting to pass a ruling on the proposed Champions League.
MUMBAI: Buckling under pressure from its media partners, the International Cricket Council on Tuesday has called for an impromptu Board meeting to pass a ruling on the proposed Champions League.
The meeting will take place by telephone hook-up. It will be attended by the presidents of all the 10 board members. ICC president David Morgan will preside over the teleconference. The $6 million tournament is scheduled to start on September 29, a day after the Champions Trophy is scheduled to end.
The emergency meeting was necessitated following threats from the ESPN-Star Sports to drag the game’s world governing body to the court on the grounds that the Champions League is not in conformity with the ICC guidelines that states that there should be a seven-day gap between an ICC event and any major tournament.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India, the main force behind the September 29-October 11 tournament, contends that the league is a domestic and club-level tournament and its proximity with the ICC tournament cannot be construed as a breach of the ICC laws. A decision on the tournament is expected on Wednesday evening.
The BCCI is confident that there are no legal issues with the tournament and understandably it has the numbers to defeat any motion against the football-style tournament. One may recall that it mustered seven votes among the ICC officials when a vote was taken on the Champions Trophy venue just a fortnight back. What is more, this time, it has the support of even Australia.
But the numbers and the legality may not be of much significance. Having sold its media rights for a whopping $1.2 billion, the world body is obliged to protect the interest of its media partners, who see a threat from the tournament. The ICC, one learns, would rather involve it self in convincing rather than forcing its members to put off the tournament.
“All our directors are committed to the principle of the primacy of ICC events and every one of them wants the Champions Trophy to be a successful, premium-quality tournament. On that basis that the directors will consider whether and if so how, the Champions Trophy could be affected by the Champions League, that begins on September 29, the reserve day of the final,” an ICC spokesman said.
The concerns for the ICC and ESS are three-fold. First they are not sure if all the star players, particularly from Australia and England, will take part in the Champions Trophy. A pull-out by Australia, the defending champions, will severely affect the stature of the tournament and subsequently its ratings. And earnings too.
Plus, with the T20 being the current flavour, ESS and the ICC are worried that advertisers will be tempted to advertise more during the Champions League than the Champions Trophy.
Third of course is the two most important series that follow the tournaments. With India lined up to play in high voltage four-Test series against Australia followed by a two-Test and seven-ODI series against England, the advertising budget of the corporate is likely to be divided among the all the tournaments. In that case the worst effected tournament could be the Champions Trophy, incidentally the biggest one-day tournament of the year.
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