N Srinivasan refuses to talk about Gurunath Meiyappan, focuses on ICC revamp

BCCI president N Srinivasan, who is set to take over as the new International Cricket Council chairman, said his prime focus during his tenure would be to make all the three formats of the game equally important. Srinivasan refused to talk about the Supreme Court inquiry panel report that found his son-in-law and Chennai Super Kings team official Gurunath Meiyappan guilty of betting in the Indian Premier League.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) Board passed some key structural and financial reforms last Saturday, which formalized powerhouse India's role as the game's financial bedrock and paved the way for Srinivasan to chair the ICC Board from July.

As per the resolution passed, a new Executive Committee will be formed to report to the board. The initial chair of this Executive Committee (ExCo) will be Wally Edwards from Cricket Australia while the chair of the Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee (F&CA) will continue to be Giles Clarke from the ECB. "For me, all three formats are equally important. The endeavour is to look after all three formats as it is necessary for the health and development of the game," Srinivasan told PTI during an interaction here on Tuesday. (Also read: Srinivasan to defy calls to quit over IPL scandal)

Some of the key elements of the resolution are the creation of Test Cricket Fund to protect the traditional format of the game, providing opportunities to associate members to play Test cricket, a new financial model for Full Members and enhanced support for the leading Associate Members.

Srinivasan said that the member nations will stand to gain more out of the new arrangement. "I am very happy that new resolution will pave the way for bringing in stability in world cricket. The new resolution was necessary for better financial health of the cricketing nations. It will generate more income for member nations. This restructuring was necessary. We needed to redefine FTP (Future Tours and Programme) to make it more vibrant," he said.

The proposal received strong resentment from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and South Africa but the ICC was able to pass it after gaining the support of eight of the ICC's 10 full members at the Executive Board meeting on Saturday.

During the meeting, South Africa voted in favour of the plan while Sri Lanka and Pakistan abstained from voting. Srinivasan said it is important that Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) understands what is good for the game of cricket. "Sri Lanka Cricket is a sovereign body and can certainly take their own decisions. But I believe they should understand what is necessary for the benefit of the game," Srinivasan said.

While Srinivasan gave a pointed reply on Sri Lanka's decision of not to vote, the BCCI chief didn't wish to comment on Pakistan Cricket Board's stance. "Look, I don't wish to get into their internal matter but there has been so much change in their administrative set-up," Srinivasan said loosely referring to the game of musical chair which is on in PCB as Najam Sethi took over the chairmanship from Zaka Ashraf yesterday.

As the discussion veered from ICC to BCCI, the Board supremo did express his disappointment at Ajinkya Rahane's dismissal which turned out to be important in the final context of the first Test that India lost by 40 runs. Rahane was adjudged leg before off Trent Boult's bowling when replays showed that he got a big inside edge.

However, the BCCI chief is yet to accept that accepting DRS would solve the problem. "I admit that one of the decisions was unfortunate but we have been pretty consistent in our view regarding DRS. I don't think both Ball-Tracker and Hot Spot are foolproof," he said.

"Ball tracker is not convincing enough when it comes to leg before decisions. I am not convinced with Hot Spot either. Agreed it might show a big nick but we remember what happened to Rahul Dravid during Test series in England in 2011. Hot Spot showed a nick when ball touched his boot laces. If you ask me that whether we would accept it after improvements, it's a speculative thing," Srinivasan concluded.