THE GREAT DIVIDE IN CRICKET FAMILY

As the world braces for yet another final of a global cricketing event, Swaroop Swaminathan takes a look at the proposed ICC revenue distribution model, the disparities between the top and bottom of the table and how it affects the countries who need more assistance to grow the sport in their backyard...

- Swaroop Swaminathan

BY the time you finish reading this 5-minute piece, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) could earn as much as $2,190. If the same proposed revenue distribution model of the International Cricket Council (ICC) is ratified in the next few weeks, non-test playing nations will make, on an average, $7 in that same 5-minute period over the next four years.

Welcome to the world of international cricket where some teams are God while others have to look for coins inside their sofa to enter the sanctum sanctorum.

This kind of financial inequality will be on show in the two ICC events in June. First the undercard. In Zimbabwe, the World Cup qualifiers will be on. There will be genuine jeopardy as four full members join six associate nations to earn the right to feature at the 50over competition in India this winter. Just before that event begins, two of the elites, Australia and India, will contest the final of the World Test Championship.

Per the proposal — first reported by Cricinfo last month — India ($230 mn) and Australia ($37 mn) stand to make just south of $270 mn per year over the next four-year period. In Zimbabwe? While the four full members combined could earn just north of $85mn, the six associates between them, including Nepal, the sport’s latest hail mary, will combine to take home less than $5mn a year.

If the proposal receives the green light, the associates — in itself a pejorative term — will receive roughly $1.1 for every $10 the ICC distributes (the BCCI, as it stands, will almost make 4 out of every 10).