“I think, geez, I’m at the top of the game and I can’t tell you who’s playing in the world. I actually didn’t realize Sri Lanka was in South Africa until I read Marco Jansen’s seven wickets this morning,” Barclay said. “So we’ve lost perspective. It’s not great for the game at all. It’s a disaster. The schedule is incredibly crowded and the self-interest is such that it’s almost impossible to sort it all out, because no one is going to abandon its content.”
Barclay said he hoped Shah would be able to leverage India’s stature to get the game out of the mess it found itself in. “I think he has a great opportunity to use what he has in his background to help India take the game to another level, but without doing it under India’s thumb as well.” , Barclay said. “We are really lucky to have India, they contribute enormously to the game in every measure, but a country having so much power and influence distorts many other results, which is not necessarily helpful in terms of this global growth.
“Jay has the ability to bring India even further into the international fold. There are a number of things India could do to help unite and grow the game, including helping commercially to pool offshore rights, using its teams to provide the opportunity to Smaller full members and emerging countries, using their influence to open new territories and markets, working closely with the ICC to assist members, as example.
Barclay also warned of an imminent financial readjustment the game could be forced to make, in the form of its upcoming media and commercial rights deal. The current rights deal is the most lucrative ever signed by the ICC, worth more than $3 billion. Most of this value comes from the Indian market, where Disney-Star* holds the rights to broadcast ICC events until 2027. This has resulted in a revenue distribution to full members of a size never before seen. seen before, and this has become particularly important. for members such as the PCB, NZC, CWI, SLC and CSA for whom annual income from the ICC represents a significant portion of their total income.
“If you really want to make a political statement, don’t play them in a World Cup. Sure, it might cost you a place in the semi-finals, but principles are principles. It’s not about having half a principle”
Greg Barclay on Cricket Australia’s stance on Afghanistan
Barclay said the transactions ultimately far exceeded the true value and that there would, over time, be a correction.
“At some point this is going to correct itself,” he said. “It’s a market. Is there going to be a strong and severe correction? Or is it going to be long and slow? Or maybe there will be an alternative broadcaster that comes on the market? But people have been saying it for a long time It’s now 10 years since New Zealand Cricket did a deal with Amazon, but it didn’t work out, so I don’t think they’ll be the white knight of all. the world is waiting, I’m just thinking about what we have in front of us. of us is what we have got.
“I know when we did our current deal it was way above the valuations we got before we entered the market. We got £2.4 billion just out of India. The next plus important is UK Sky. They did an eight billion pound deal per year, which amounted to £237 million, which is 10% of the deal with India for twice the duration. longer So, yes. we go back to the original projection of £800 million, it could even halve the ICC’s revenues less than that. There is no visible replacement for that at the moment.
One of the major issues during Barclay’s era was the country’s Taliban government not allowing the Afghanistan Cricket Board to field a women’s team. Establishing a women’s team and program is a central tenet of full membership and despite calls to suspend membership, Barclay said the ICC had been right not to sanction the status member of Afghanistan.
“It’s not the fault of the Afghanistan board. Earlier, they had women’s cricket. I think our approach has been the right one,” he said. “It would be easy to kick Afghanistan out, but their board has done nothing wrong. They are simply working under an executive order and a series of laws that say this is what you have to do. I don’t think it would make much difference to the ruling party in expelling them.
“Maybe I’m a little naive, but I think cricket is such a force for good out there, and it brings a lot of joy to a lot of people. It’s best to leave it at that and hope that it can encourage a little change.”
Instead, Barclay highlighted the double standards of boards – such as Cricket Australia – who canceled several bilateral series with the Afghanistan men’s team as punishment, but played them in tournament events. the ICC. “If you really want to make a political statement, don’t play them at a World Cup. Of course, it might cost you a place in the semi-finals, but principles are principles. It’s not about having half a principle.”
*PK Press Club is part of Star India Pvt Ltd
