‘India massively important part of world cricket’: ICC chairman Greg Barclay

Stating that Indian are a ‘massively important part of world cricket’, the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) newly-elected chairman Greg Barclay on Monday said they have been able to find a way to navigate through the minor differences with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The parent body of Indian cricket - BCCI - has often has often been at loggerheads with the ICC regarding the distribution of revenue in recent times. Considering the fact that BCCI is one of the richest boards going around and one of the major contributors in ICC’s revenue, Barclay said that everyone acknowledges the importance of a strong member board like BCCI.

“India is a massively important part of world cricket. Like all families, we have general squabbles but India recognises that ICC needs Indian cricket. We have been able to navigate through differences if any,” Barclay, who took charge earlier this month, said during a virtual media conference for wire services.

While making it clear that he would like to see a lot of Indo-Pak bilateral cricket, he maintained that it’s “not his mandate” and he understands that there are “geo-political” considerations in play.

Barclay also conceded that the ambitious World Test Championship hasn’t quite achieved what it intended to and the disruption caused by Covid-19 has only highlighted its “shortcomings”.

The World Test Championship schedule has been thrown haywire by the pandemic and the ICC has come up with a percentage allocation of points as all the scheduled series before the 2021 final at the Lord’s cannot be completed in a short span of time.

Has the Test Championship given the format a fillip that it was meant to? “In short, I don’t think so. The COVID has probably highlighted its shortcomings of the championship,”

In fact, Barclay dropped a hint that the inaugural WTC could well be the last one as smaller members can’t afford Test cricket championship anymore.

“My personal view is let’s get through with the little bit that we can in this COVID-19, with reallocation of points and all that.

“...but once we have done that, let’s go back to the drawing board as I am not quite sure whether it (WTC) entirely fits the purpose and has achieved what it intended to after being conceptualised four to five years back.

“I think we need to look at it in context of calendar and not put cricketers in a situation where it’s a lot more worse and not going to help us,” the New Zealand lawyer asserted.

(With PTI inputs)