Rollback of 'Big Three' revamp not confirmed - Thakur

The new BCCI president Anurag Thakur has said in an interview with ESPNcricinfo that a rollback of the constitutional revamp that gave India, England and Australia greater administrative and financial power at the ICC is not a certainty, despite his predecessor Shashank Manohar's criticism of the "bullying" of the ICC by the "Big Three". Manohar, who was recently elected as the first independent chairman of the ICC, heads a five-member steering group that is reviewing the constitutional reforms of 2014, with an aim of submitting recommendations at the ICC's annual conference later this month.

Manohar was particularly displeased with the revenue-sharing formula, saying it would make "the poor poorer and the rich richer". "India generates money because the other countries come and play in India," he had pointed out. "If you do not have a fierce competition, the broadcasters are not going to pay you and the sponsors are not going to sponsor your events."

Thakur, however, said the present revenue-sharing arrangement was not dismantled yet, but was still in the negotiations stage. "The [BCCI] authorised the president and secretary to negotiate and discuss the matter with the ICC," Thakur said. "Yes [the final word has not been spoken on the matter]. It is just at the discussion stage."

He remained non-committal when asked if he and Manohar were not on the same page on the matter. "I simply said let the situation [play out], the power has been given to president and secretary," he said. "As to whether we agree or disagree, Mr Manohar also hadn't taken a decision at that time, so how do you say we disagree?"

During his time as BCCI secretary Thakur had expressed reservations over Manohar's views on the distribution of revenue, and said there was nothing wrong in India receiving a bigger share. "The [BCCI] president said this in his personal capacity. He made it very clear that it was his personal opinion," Thakur had said.

Speaking now, however, Thakur did back Manohar's new role, which is independent of the BCCI. "I personally supported that [the ICC chairman being independent of his national board] when it was discussed at the ICC meetings," Thakur said. "And I insisted that if there is only a single nomination, allow that person to take over as ICC chairman from that day only, otherwise for 15-20 days [more, while the election process played out] the BCCI representative would have been the ICC chairman.

He also said the BCCI will roll out initiatives that will change the way people perceive the board. "I want to see the Indian team as No. 1 in all formats. We [the BCCI] want to be more transparent, accountable and bring in more professionalism. Apart from that, we want to look at green initiatives, support deaf & dumb cricket etc.

"The board does a great job, organises 800-plus matches over a year. This is not easy. How many associations can manage to shift matches between venues in the space of seven days? We have created good infrastructure over the years, that is our asset. I have to take all the state units together and strengthen them, so that we can easily handle any situation the BCCI comes across."