Calcutta: Having signed its own death warrant, so to say, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is scrambling to take back its signature before the warrant is executed.
Monday, indeed, saw dramatic happenings in Hong Kong, which is hosting the International Cricket Council (ICC)’s Annual Conference Week.
Officially, the most talked about development was on the umpire Decision Review System front, with a hitherto stubborn India falling in line with the wishes of the fraternity.
Unofficially, the BCB took centre stage, once word got around that it was having “second thoughts” on agreeing to amend the ICC’s constitution and, in the process, signing away the chance to have its nominee ascend the president’s chair in 2014.
That the BCB had acted against its own interests had been reported first by The Telegraph, on June 23. To put it mildly, BCB president Mustafa Kamal is in troubled waters.
“The BCB is arguing that it wasn’t really aware of the consequences of the resolution via circular which it signed on May 31... But that can’t be withdrawn... What’s done can’t be undone... If the BCB wants a re-vote, at the Executive Board, then it must have the support of eight of the 10 Full (Test-playing) Members. That’s out of the question,” a well-placed source revealed.
Belatedly, what the BCB can do is to vote against the constitutional change when it’s put before the General Council. The move is being spearheaded by India and England.
For its part, the BCB put out a press release, saying: “The BCB, in principle, agrees to the proposed amendment... However, the BCB feels that an equal and fair opportunity should be given to all existing Full Member countries to avail the privileges of the current rotational system...”
After the late realisation, the BCB claims to have written to ICC president Sharad Pawar, calling for the change to come into effect “only after the completion” of the existing cycle.
Bangladesh and Pakistan have been clubbed together in the rotational system and, as the latter’s Ehsan Mani has already been the president (2003-06), Bangladesh had the strongest claim this time around.
Going by the existing cycle, the BCB nominee could have taken over as vice-president next year and become the president in 2014, at the end of Alan Isaac’s term.
When the resolution via circular was put to ‘vote’, Pakistan objected, while Sri Lanka abstained. Pakistan, one learns, plans to take “legal action.”
Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, has been threatening that rather publicly in Hong Kong. The irony is that he’s himself under acute pressure to keep his chair.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), meanwhile, has quickly moved to placate the Associate Members, 35 of whom will be voting in the General Council.
Specifically, the BCCI has conveyed to the Associates that it would have “no objections” to a 14-team World Cup in 2015 as well.
In other words, like in the last World Cup, four can qualify.
The BCCI’s position has shifted, for reasons which are more ‘political’ in nature, but it hasn’t surprised. That the Associates’ script could unfold in this very manner had also been reported in these columns, on June 23.
Of course, the BCCI won’t favour a qualification process, but call for the automatic entry of all 10 Test-playing nations if, eventually, the Executive Board decides on a 10-team competition.
Australia and New Zealand, the joint hosts, are (as of now) in favour of just 10 teams.
The ICC chief executives’ committee, which finished its deliberations on Monday, has recommended a “qualification process,” without talking of the number of teams.
Rather strange that. The call will now have to be made by the Executive Board.
