ACC fears funding cut impact

The Asian Cricket Council fears that the downsizing of its operations could spell an end to a lot of its development work in Asia, including the staging of several age-group and women's tournaments. According to ACC's chief executive Syed Ashraful Huq, the MoU between the ICC and ACC is in place till December 31, 2015, after which they are unlikely to get half of world cricket's development fund.

At present, according to Huq, six per cent of the ICC's revenue is earmarked for development, of which half goes to the ACC and half to the rest of the world. After the agreement with the ACC ends, the ICC plans to distribute the money equally.

"If the agreement with the ICC really does end there is a high chance that we won't get the fund from the ICC," Huq told ESPNcricinfo. ""We have been told that the countries will get more money than what they got previously. The previous funding came from ICC and went through to the Asian countries through the ACC.

"The countries will lose out on the tournaments that we used to have. We had a lot of age-group, women's and other tournaments, around seven or eight every year. These countries won't have tournaments within the region. If the ACC comes to an end, these countries will have to have bilateral series. How many of them are capable of doing it, that is a different question. All our educational programmes like coaching, umpiring and curatorship will all be finished."

Having been involved with the ACC since its formation in 1983 as a joint secretary, Huq wants to see the founding ideas of the ACC to stay afloat in some form, even if he doesn't expect the body itself to remain in its current form.

"We have not been given notice as such [from the ICC] but told so informally," Huq said. "I don't think the ICC has yet taken a concrete decision on the matter.

"The ACC was formed on September 19, 1983, with a lot of ideas, like keeping the Asian countries together. The voting system was different back in the day, so we wanted to form what is called a bloc. We had ideas to promote Asian cricket, so we have to keep some of these ideas. We cannot throw them out of the window. It has to be kept in some form or the other."

At the discontinuation of the MoU, the funding from the ICC to the ACC is likely to stop. Huq said he had been informed that the new model would have more money in store for all the countries, who will now receive the amount directly. But the Associate and Affiliate nations will now have to arrange their own tournaments and competitions. This year the ACC organised nine regional tournaments including the 12th edition of the Asia Cup.

Since 1984, the ACC has come into the limelight every two years when it has hosted the Asia Cup but it has also employed coaches and umpires, for example, throughout the continent to develop the region's cricket.

Huq said it was sad to see the ACC coming to an end since it had been a successful regional body with notable accomplishments. Asian teams have improved over the last decade, Afghanistan making the most celebrated rise by playing the 2010 World T20 and qualifying for the 2015 World Cup, and Nepal breaking through to qualify for the 2014 World T20. The event in Bangladesh had four Associate nations including Afghanistan, UAE and Hong Kong. Huq felt it was unfair to compare ACC's success with other bodies but it had little say in the matter.

"[The level of success] is not the same but we can't help it," he said. "If the ICC wants, it has to be done. We have no say in it. From the ACC's point of view, it is sad that it is coming to an end. We believe we had a brilliant programme.

"Four of our teams played in the World T20 and two will play in the 2015 World Cup. Our improvement and work showed. It was visible. It is latent, not something that will happen ten years from now. It is already bearing fruit."

Huq, however, said the Asia Cup would remain since it had been given space in the Future Tours Programme till 2022, for which the ACC, as the tournament's organiser, would have to remain as a legally formed body.

"We have a lot of programmes," Huq said. "We have the Asia Cup which is a major source of revenue. It is a big property, and the Asia Cup will remain. It has been slotted in the FTP for 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022. In order to have the Asia Cup, we need to have some sort of a legal entity. Otherwise we can't have a commercial agreement with any company.

"To have that, I don't know the modalities of how the ACC will operate: whether it will be a paper company or it will operate out of Singapore, Dubai or as it is now, out of Kuala Lumpur. Nothing has been thought about or done about these issues. It has not been discussed in meetings."

The decision now lies with the ICC. The ACC depends heavily on its funding. Huq is a seasoned cricket organiser who is regarded as the man who brought international cricket to Bangladesh, and a lynchpin behind the movement to host cricket in Sharjah. Back in August he informed first that the ICC was heading towards downsizing the ACC and other regional bodies. As he was back then, he is still unsure of the direction in which the region's cricket development is headed once the ICC decides to do it on its own and not leave it to regional bodies.

"It will all depend on what the ICC's stance will be at the end of the day, what they want to do about the development of cricket," Huq said. "If they want to cut down the development of cricket, we have to cut it down as well because then where will our funding come from?"