ICC Big Three

The simmering big three row in cricket involving India, England and Australia poses, perhaps, the biggest threat to the game .Going by reports received so far, it appears that while Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are more or less determined to oppose the plan, nations like New Zealand and the West Indies are eager to please the big three. Pakistans response has been rather cautious to date Alan Isaac, a New Zealander who is president of the I.C.C., said he had chosen to work with just three nations rather than a larger group because they were likely to make progress more quickly. We havent been to India in 14 years. We will go there to play tests. They will come here, announced Nazmul Hussain, president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, adding, We will go to England, Australia will come here. The executive board also formally dropped plans for a World Test Championship playoff for four teams in the five-day test format in 2017. We were always struggling to find a format that could be completed within a relatively short space of time and that would not lead to more damage than good, said David Richardson, the I.C.C.s chief executive. Isaac, the I.C.C. president, said the meeting was one of the most productive and participatory meetings of all that I have been in. The transformation sought by the Big Three seems close to completion, but clearly it still has many significant voices to win over. The I.C.C. as a true, independent, governing body will no longer exist once the proposal is voted through, wrote Mike Atherton, a former England captain, in The Times of London. These clearly proved to be the clinching factors. For the Big Three, the asking rate is pretty much achievable now. it is just a matter of time before the proposals on an ICC revamp are formally accepted.