When the ICC reversed its decision of the 10 nations 2015 WC to 14 nation everybody felt happy. The Associates thought they had won the war. But what they saw next meant that ICC had settled scores. Although they had increased the number of teams in 50 overs format, shocking in T20 they cut the number of teams from 16 to 12.
This meant that over a cycle of 4 years where earlier the associates had 6+6+0=12 chances of playing, now it was reduced to 2+2+4=8 slots. Further if ICC had opened bottom 2 slots in 10 nation world cup then it would have meant 14 slots.
T20 was proclaimed as the driver to drive cricket into new market. Most of the upcoming nations also agree to the same.Then why did ICC cut the number in T20 contradicting itself. According to ICC version this came due to cost factor. According to ICC there is a total cost package and increase in 50 over to 14 teams meant they had to compensate the costs and had to reduce the no of teams in T20
Is this the real reason. Can the ICC not afford both a 14 nation World Cup and 2 16 nations World T20. According to me they can easily do that. The cost of staging a 16 nation or 12 nation T20 cup does not increase the cost significantly.
The real reason is another cost that ICC has to bear. Whenever ICC conducts a tournament it has the right to sponsorship, TV Revenue's, gate collections and all other sources of income. The hosts get a hosting fee. Like for 2011 CWC SL got 23 M$ as hosting fee. Similarly Ind and BD got some amounts. The other Test Nations get a participating fee. The associates participating in the World Cups also get a participating fee but which is significantly very less as compared to Test Nations.
To take to reference in 2010 World T20 every Test nation got 6 M$ (WI Got 6M$+ Hosting fee) and the 2 Associates got around 0.6 M$.
From the 2012 and 2014 World T20, the 10 Test Nations & 6 qualifiers would have got similar amount of money. That would have meant 10X6+6X 0.6= 63.6 M$ as participating cost for each tournament and for the 2015 WC around 10 M$ to each member each of 10 Test Nations playing i.e 10X10= 100 M$. This means that ICC would have the total cost of 227.2 M$.
Each of the test nations would have got 22 M$ over 4 years. That is life line for many boards like SL, WI, Zim.
In the present scenario a 12 nation T20 means that due to cost saving each of the full member get 6.5 M$ each while 2 Qualifiers get 0.65 M$ each a Total Cost of 66.3 M$. The 2015 WC will now give each member 9.0 M$ and qualifiers around 0.9 M$ hence a total cost of 93.6 M$
Now each of the test nations gets again 22 M$. If a 14 Nation 50 Over WC and 16 Nation T20 trophy was there that would have meant that the income of each board reducing to 21 M$, a whopping 1 M$ loss. This would have been a significant loss to at least 5 of the boards where this income is more than 30% of the boards income.
Hence it is ultimately the greed to the member nations that have lead to this decision and not the total cost factor. Hence this also proves ICC should run like a independent body and not like a body with members who will always think of their interests rather than for the overall good of the game.
If anyone had some brains they should have gone of a 12 nation WC or 10 nations with 2 qualifiers and a 16 nation T20. I criticize the decision of ICC and term it as pathetic.
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