BCCI will be more involved - Richardson

The ICC's move to restructure its administration and financial distribution model will ensure the BCCI will play "a full role in developing strategy going forward," according to ICC chief executive Dave Richardson.

Richardson was speaking before the first Super 10 match at the World T20 and said it was necessary for "members of influence to take responsibility" of the formulation of strategy. The ICC's new governance and financial model puts both administrative and financial control in the hands of three member boards - Cricket Australia, the BCCI and the ECB.

Richardson said he had been "encouraged" by the new resolutions passed by the ICC board in early February. They are expected to be formally approved by the full ICC council during its annual meeting in June.

The "members of influence," Richardson said, needed to "be accountable for the decisions, the strategies that get determined. And to be held accountable going forward. If you have influential members who are not taking that responsibility, that's where you will develop problems."

The new resolutions distributed the three most important posts in the ICC - the overall chairmanship, the heads of the Finance & Commercial Affairs committee and the newly-formed Executive Committee - to the CA, BCCI and the ECB. BCCI president N Srinivasan will be the ICC's first chairman and Richardson said it meant, "for the first time, the BCCI will be very much part of the governance structure, playing a full role in developing the strategy going forward. So I am looking forward to working with the BCCI."

When asked whether the BCCI had previously not been involved in ICC functioning or decision-making, Richardson said, "Their approach was always to sit on the outside, not to partake in developing strategy. They left that to the other people. Now for the first time, they have taken the responsibility on their shoulders to lead in developing the strategy."

Richardson said dealing with the new financial structure was not about the ICC drawing the line between making concessions to the BCCI and giving in their demands, but instead a matter of "negotiation" between member boards. "Because it is their revenues and they have to decide how they have to distribute it among themselves."

"I don't know where you draw the line. In any negotiation, I always find once the deal gets done, once you've agreed to sign and buy the house, you always think you could have done a better deal. But you run the risk of losing the deal if you don't agree. The fact is that is the negotiation, that was the deal that was done."