If some BCCI office-bearers and member units are miffed at the proposed current four-year (2018-19/22-23) Future Tours Programme (FTP) and want to effect changes to it at a general body meeting before it is taken up for consideration with other full members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), then they are justified.
Some Board members and influential people do not want to compromise on the pre-eminence accorded to the high-stakes home international season because it’s here that the BCCI makes its money. “The present FTP puts India at a disadvantage,” said a BCCI official.
According to the FTP drawn for 2018-23, which the BCCI wants to change, India is scheduled to play in 36 Tests, 73 ODIs and 18 T20Is with 15 Tests, 30 ODIs and 6 Twenty20 matches at home. According to the BCCI, there is a shortfall of 25 home internationals for the 2018-2023 period.
BCCI members feel that the FTP is lopsided with India allotted only two Tests, 10 ODIs and one T20I for the 2021-22 home season and no Test, 10 ODIs and one T20I for ’22-23; all this will see a big dip in the BCCI’s income from media and other rights.
With the new four-year media rights cycle to come up in 2018, BCCI members are keen to optimise the revenue potential.
In 2016 and 2017, the BCCI has seen receipts in excess of ₹2100 crore from its media rights, team, series and apparel sponsorships. The hurriedly arranged series against Sri Lanka has seen the revenue jump by nearly ₹450 crore.
The BCCI and its member units are thrilled at Star India making a successful bid at ₹16,347.50 crore for the IPL media rights from 2018 to 2022. The present BCCI’s media rights agreement with Star India for bilateral home internationals will come to a close in March 2018, although the last T20 to be played against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium on December 24 will virtually signal the end of the home international broadcasts by Star India.
In a note circulated to the BCCI members for the Special General Meeting to be held in New Delhi on December 11, it has been emphasised that “the BCCI through its representatives has been part of the exercise since the ICC initiated the process to draft a consolidated new FTP.
The representation is necessary to safeguard the interest of the BCCI, protect the home season and to safeguard its interest, as it is due for a four-year media rights cycle in 2018.”
BCCI members have been told about a number of ICC-initiated conferences, member scheduling workshops, CEC and ICC Board meetings in Dubai, Edinburgh, Cape Town, London and Auckland from February 2016 to October 2017 to consider the new FTP.
The next CEO’s meeting in Singapore on December 7 and 8 will again consider the new FTP.
The BCCI’s note also makes it a point to say that a new FTP is necessary to redress the current imbalance in the current FTP and to incorporate the ICC Test Championships, ICC ODI leagues and also the ICC Women Championship.
The BCCI’s position now is that its operations team is working closely with the ICC and other Boards to ensure a proposal which has a fixed home season in the next cycle (2018-2023) and is also eligible for the ICC Test and ODI leagues.
