International Cricket Council (ICC)
is the international governing body of cricket that has total 105 members(10
full members, 39 associate members, and 56 affiliate embers) ICC is the main
authority to support the game of cricket at global level by creating an equal
laws and mechanism for all playing nations, ICC is responsible to fulfill the
desire needs of all its members without any discrimination, but unfortunately it
is not happening with its permanent and associate members, the criteria of
getting equal value in ICC is based on the financial strength, it means that,
those countries those are economically more stable, have more influence on the
global association of cricket which we called ICC. Economically more Stronger
cricket boards like, Board of control for Cricket in India (BCCI), England
Cricket board (ECB) and Cricket Australia (CA) has their clout control on ICC,
in other words we can say that, In this era of Globalization of sports: the main
focus of ICC is one-dimensional towards certain countries like India, England
and Australia. The hegemonic influence of these three countries on ICC portrays
the biased standings of ICC, while providing global support to other playing
nations and Pakistan is one of the victims of this biased sporting circuit. If
we analyze the revenue distribution model of ICC among its members, we see
intensive and un-favorable bigotry of international council with other seven
test playing countries (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, New Zeland, West
Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe) and especially with associate members including
Afghanistan, Ireland, Netherland, Scotland, UAE, P.N.G, Hong Kong and Nepal.
Through ICC revenue sharing model (2016-2023), BCCI will get most of it (22.9%)
as a test playing nation followed by England cricket board with 10% and Cricket
Australia by 5% of total revenue of ICC. Whereas Pakistan will get 3.82%, South
Africa 3.75%, West Indies 3.18%, Sri Lanka 3.18%, New Zeeland 2.99%, Bangladesh
2.67% and Zimbabwe will get only 2.54% total revenue share from ICC, associate
members (39 countries) will just get 9.75 percent share from ICC and remaining
30% will be owned by International cricket council its self. These statistics
show the un-equal financial difference among the countries which simply depict
the biased standings of ICC in favor of India, England and Australia. The matter
of discrimination is not just restrict at financial level, it also exists in the
distribution of cricket matches, due to having low economic status, countries
like Pakistan gets less test matches as compare to these big economic giants,
Pakistan has played 50 test match in almost seven last years, whereas India had
played 62, Australia played 74 and England played 75 test matches from 2011 till
Nov 2, 2016,that shows the gap of played test between Pakistan and these three
big countries. As we talk about the predominance of three power full countries,
the influence of BCCI is more prominent on ICC, Indian economic market: huge
commercial value, wide range of television broadcasters and humongous viewership
is widely manipulating the economic will of other cricketing countries. Indian
Investment is so broad that also creates its impact on the domestic activities
of other countries in which Indian ownership exists in the form of buying
franchises and other commercial activities and Due to the hegemonic influence of
these three countries on financial values, the over-all quality of cricket has
decreased, most of the countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh cannot
able to get advanced technologies while the broadcasting of cricket match
because of having no enough financial resources e.g. in DRS, these countries
cannot afford such technologies like Hawk-eye and Snicko meter to make the game
of cricket more attractive and more disciplined. So as we conclude we can say
that ICC is not working as a global association to present cricket at world
level and having biased standered while supporting its playing members that
impacts the over-all quality of the game. The economic hegemony of strong
cricketing boards presenting ICC like their own property, if these circumstances
will exist more than ICC will be recognize just as the supporting association of
India, Australia and England.