The Board of Control for Cricket in India is clearly not happy with the International Cricket Council at the moment. After staunchly opposing the two-tier Test system, the BCCI was miffed when reports suggested the ICC had allocated funds reaching up to $135 million to the ECB for hosting the 2017 Champions Trophy, which is three times of the amount the BCCI was given for organising the World T20.
The ICC chairman Shashank Manohar, as a result, has come back into the spotlight, and the former BCCI president was quick to play down the controversy, insisting the figures are wrong.
The richest cricket body in the world also seems to have been disappointed with Manohar, who had spoken about looking after India's interest even after becoming the ICC chairman in November 2015. But, things changed after he became the independent chairman in May 2016, after giving up the post of the BCCI president.
"(When)I was the BCCI president, it was my duty to look after the BCCI's interests. Today I'm unconnected with any particular member of the ICC. I'm the independent ICC chairman, so I have to look at the best interests of the ICC. It's for the BCCI representative to look after the best interests of the BCCI," Indian Express quoted Manohar as saying.
"I have to serve the ICC's interests, because it's my duty as the independent chairman of the ICC to look at the best interests of the ICC and not to promote the interests of any individual country. I have been elected by all the directors of various countries."
The BCCI has even threatened to pull out of the ICC Champions Trophy if relations do not improve. The Indian board was not even invited to the ICC's finance committee meeting, which took shape in Dubai.
The board's disappointment did not end there as BCCI was surprised when they came to know about the $135 million allocated for the Champions Trophy in England, which was huge if one compared to ICC's $45 million for the World T20 in India. As a result of which BCCI sent an email to the ICC, asking them the reason for such a huge budget.
But Manohar has stated that the figures are wrong, and $46 million has been allocated for the Champions Trophy.
"That's not factually correct. The budget for the WT20 2016 including the television production cost was $55,084116 ($55m) . However, the budget for the Champions Trophy 2017, including television production cost, is $46,781507 ($46mn)," Manohar said.
"Yes, there were more matches and teams at the WT20 2016 compared to what will be there for the Champions Trophy. But, the Champions Trophy games are full day games and the accommodation and travel cost in the UK are substantially higher that what they were in India."
