BCCI sees red as ICC gives $135m for CT in UK

New Delhi, The Indian cricket board (BCCI) has expressed its reservations over the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) decision to earmark a budget of approximately $135 million as the organisational cost for next year’s Champions Trophy, to be held in the UK from June 1-18 in 2017.
The budget is a three-fold increase from the $45 million that was allocated to BCCI by ICC for the World T20, held from March 8 to April 3 this year. Whenever ICC conducts any tournament, a certain budget is allocated to the host country. The host country then appoints an LOC (Local Organising Committee), which is responsible for all the expenditure that may be incurred during the tournament. BCCI is baffled with the huge cost escalation for a 19-day tournament in the UK, considering that it will host only 15 matches compared to the World T20 in India, which was a 27-day event with 58 matches — 35 in the men’s category, 23 in the women’s.
Also, there are reports that ICC will be building an office in London which will be handed over to the England and Wales Cricket Board once the tournament is over. The draft budget for the Champions Trophy 2017 was circulated by ICC to its members for review at its annual conference held in Edinburgh in May-June.
Accordingly, BCCI has sent a letter to ICC “expressing their reservations about the budget” and the matter is expected to be discussed on the sidelines of the ICC Chief Executives meeting in Dubai on September 6 and 7.
A BCCI official said: “BCCI organised the World T20, a tournament of longer duration, at one third of this cost. Even if we take into account that the expenditure will be in pounds, but in India, there are more overheads including logistics as you need to take flights from one city to another, which is not the case in England.” The construction of a new office is also something that is being questioned. As per the trends of major ICC tournaments in the past decade, BCCI’s budget allocation has been less in India compared to what the other countries have got.

CSA announce racial quotas for team
Johannesburg: Cricket South Africa (CSA) have put in place racial quotas for the national team across all three formats of the game in an effort to increase the number of black players in a sport still dominated by whites. CSA have sought an average minimum of six Black players, of which two must be Black African, in matches over the season, the organisation announced on Saturday. The move will have little immediate impact on the team as those targets were reached in the recent Test series win over New Zealand when the side was at full-strength bar the absence of injured captain AB de Villiers.