The Board of Control for Cricket in India will be approaching the International Cricket Council with the aim to try and get as many as three major events in the next FTP cycle spanning 2024-31.
The Indian board, though, won’t bid but seek to be awarded the hosting rights for those events, reported Cricbuzz, following BCCI’s apex council meeting on Sunday.
The matter will be discussed between BCCI and ICC in Dubai. The Indian board’s decision to not bid but seek is borne out of two factors. One, it is against the ICC’s newly adopted bidding system to allocate major events to different countries. And secondly, it feels it is in the interest of ICC and world cricket if some of the major events are played in India – undoubtedly, cricket’s biggest market.
The Indian board wants one of the two ODI World Cups, one of the two Champions Trophies, and one of the four T20 World Cups announced by the ICC for the next rights cycle.
“The BCCI is also sensitive to the fact that it cannot guarantee tax exemption, which is a pre-condition for hosting any ICC tournament in India.”
Cricbuzz reported,
This year’s T20 World Cup, for BCCI remains host irrespective of where it is played, hasn’t yet received a tax exemption from the Indian government and that has also posed a question mark over the 2023 World Cup.
“The BCCI officials have decided that they will discuss with the ICC top brass when they visit Dubai. Many members are of the view that with most ICC commercial stakeholders being from India, it is important for the world body that it hosted the global events in India since the ICC commercial partners will wish the World Cup matches are held here in the Indian time zone.”
As many as eight major events are scheduled for the next rights cycle, the hosting rights for which will be finalised by September following a selection process, the ICC confirmed recently. The governing body’s officials and directors confirmed when contacted by Cricbuzz that the “determining factors will be financial bids.”
The report also mentioned that there is a potential discrepancy between the hosting fee for the boards. The fee sanctioned to the BCCI for the 2021 T20 World Cup and Cricket Australia for the 2022 T20 World Cup is speculated not to be the same. But the ICC has stressed on its part that the fee will be identical for the two boards.
