Ricky Ponting: "They [India] probably to a certain degree deserve a say in what happens"
Ricky Ponting
Former Australian captain and one of the finest batsman of his generation, Ricky Ponting, expressed his views on the changes that have recently been brought about in the governance and financial models of the ICC.
In one of the most controversial and talked about resolution, India, Australia and England have been recognised as the three most important revenue generating cricket nations in the world, and will now receive the lion’s share of ICC’s overall revenue stream, and will have the bulk of the power going forward.
Ricky Ponting, speaking to the Sunday Star-Times, said it is a tricky subject, but endorsed the decision.
“That’s probably right, but that’s the lay of the land. They’re the powerhouse nation of the game and being as powerful as they are, they probably to a certain degree deserve a say in what happens. It’s a bit of a touchy subject to handle,”
“It seems like Australia have a series against India every year. That’s a great source of revenue, and why everyone wants Tests against India, because of the TV revenue. Those tours are pretty important.”
“But it’s got to be a bit of a sharing-type thing. You can’t just have a couple of nations that are really strong, powerful and wealthy while the others are struggling.
“It’s a real balancing act for players and administrators at the moment with the popularity of the Twenty20 game.”
“I think a lot of it is in the right direction. The Tests and one-day championships add context in every game, when I played I always felt there were too many meaningless games of one-day cricket. That’s starting to look after itself a little bit now,” he said.
The legend agreed, that the playing schedules are incredibly taxing on the players, both young and old, and highlights the need for a complete overhaul.
“But I still think the playing schedule is too hard on the players. Yes they’re paid a lot of money, but the international programmes now seem like they’re getting more tightly-packed and if you look at domestic tournaments as well, the Big Bash is growing over here, the IPL is getting bigger and bigger and is lucrative for the players, but some serious decisions have to be made by players.”