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Team India set to play Champions Trophy, but ‘under protest’ against ICC

With BCCI’s Special General Meeting (SGM) slated to take place on Sunday, there are strong chances that a meeting of the senior selection committee will be convened on Monday, thus putting an end to all speculations about boycotting the eight-nation ICC event.

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The decks seem to have been finally cleared for Team India's participation in the Champions Trophy in England from June 1 to 18. However, the team will only be sent “under protest” in the wake of ongoing tussle between International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over the new revenue sharing model and governance.

With BCCI’s Special General Meeting (SGM) slated to take place on Sunday, there are strong chances that a meeting of the senior selection committee will be convened on Monday, thus putting an end to all speculations about boycotting the eight-nation ICC event.

The understanding was reached after a day-long meeting on Saturday between the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) and the representatives of the state cricket associations. The three eligible BCCI office-bearers – CK Khanna, Amitabh Chaudhary and Aniruddh Chaudhary – were present for the meeting.

“The selection meeting may be called on Monday. The BCCI secretary is going to take the call after the SGM. But my view is that India must take part in the Champions Trophy,” Khanna, the acting BCCI president, said after the meeting.

It's another thing that Khanna has never been taken into confidence by the other two officials. But he was addressing the concerns of a particular group in the BCCI.

On the other hand, there is still an overwhelming view amongst a group led by former BCCI chief N Srinivasan that “no compromise should be made on the matter of India’s dominance in ICC”.

“Only the SGM is authorised to take a final call on team’s participation,” said Amitabh, adding: “Let all members do some brainstorming on such critical issues.”

For the Board, sending the team to England would be seen as taking care of the public sentiments.

“BCCI is already fighting a long battle in the Apex court right now. And boycotting such a prestigious event could go against us,” a BCCI member said.

DNA has been reporting about how BCCI’s top brass is unhappy over ICC’s decision to reduce India’s share from $570 million to $293 million recently. It was also a deliberate move by BCCI to miss the April 25 deadline for submission of the squad for Champions Trophy.

Though COA later asked the BCCI secretary to convene a meeting of selectors, the orders have not been executed till date.

It has been learnt that the topic of discussion on Saturday was mostly focussed on the team’s participation. BCCI officials did try and take COA for a ride with a promise of looking into ways of solving the remaining issues.

“COA did talk about implementation of Justice Lodha panel recommendations but the discussion more or less centred around knowing the views of states on CT participation,” said a BCCI member from East Zone.

On the issue of sending notice to ICC over revenue model and governance, COA apparently told the states that it has heard the audio clip of February 19, 2016 SGM in Mumbai, where “the members authorised the then BCCI president Shashank Manohar to accept a cut of $150 million and bring the BCCI’s share below 15 per cent of the ICC’s net revenue”.

A senior BCCI member said: “There can be negotiations over revenue but not over the question of governance, if that amounts to reducing India’s say in the world body.”

Revenue model

On the issue of sending notice to ICC over revenue model and governance, COA told the states bodies that it has heard the audio clip of February 19, 2016 SGM in Mumbai.
In that, the members authorised the then BCCI president Shashank Manohar to accept a cut of $150 million and bring the BCCI’s share below 15 per cent of ICC’s net revenue.

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