'Unanimous' SLC backs ICC revamp

Sri Lanka Cricket's Executive Committee has made a unanimous decision to support the governance, finance and FTP changes in the ICC, which were proposed by the BCCI, ECB and CA, at its meeting on February 17. SLC had refrained from voting on the revised proposals at the ICC Board meeting in Singapore, saying it needed more time to discuss them.

"The Executive Committee met today at SLC headquarters to converse regarding the revised resolutions forwarded by the ICC at the ICC Board meeting held on February 8 in Singapore," the SLC said. "Subsequent to the committee members assessing the revised resolutions in detail, all members were satisfied with the amendments made in the areas of governance and competition models and thus unanimously decided to support the paper."

There had been fears that Sri Lanka might get isolated by India, England and Australia because they did not support the proposals straightaway in Singapore, but SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga allayed them.

"Since we have been very clear and precise in our communications they are respecting us," Ranatunga said. "They all respect our views and we have a better understanding among each other."

Ranatunga said that once the proposals were passed at the ICC's annual meeting in June there will be no FTP and only bilateral agreements between countries. "So we need to understand the importance of having tours with India, England and Australia."

He said that for the next seven years Sri Lanka were due to get an income of $60 million from bilateral tours, and out of this figure, one Indian tour for one month would bring $28m, one England tour $12m and one Australian tour $7-8m.

"When you calculate, a series with these three countries will bring us a revenue of $47-48m. If we are going to object to their proposals our cricket is going to suffer," Ranatunga said. "People who talk about principles and all that will not give us the money. We have to make our money from these tours.

"When any other country comes for a full tour we bear the same cost to host them but the returns are very small compared to the other three countries."

India is due to tour Sri Lanka in 2017 amd Ranatunga was hopeful that the FTP drawn up till 2018 will not be affected.

"SLC is confident that they can go ahead with the tours they have planned so far. We are in the process of negotiating for more tours with other countries."