Big Three deserve big slice

By Orville Higgins

At the start, most Caribbean people were very sceptical when we first heard about the proposal by the Big Three in cricket. We in the Caribbean were flabbergasted at the mere mention that West Indies would be involved in the second tier of Test cricket, and felt that India, Australia and England were merely trying to hijack international cricket for their own selfish interests.

When we heard that the West Indies Cricket Board would go along with the Big Three, most of us felt that those put in charge of our cricket had gone crazy or were selling us out to the highest bidder.

As additional information keeps coming out, it appears that the proposals put forward may not be so bad after all, and that ultimately, the West Indies will stand to gain. For one thing, there will be no second tier. The proposal now is for the 10th-place team in Test cricket to face off against some other associate teams for the right to stay with the big boys. West Indies are now ranked eighth, and unless we suddenly become completely 'wutliss', we really have nothing to fear.

bread and butter events

What we have here is nothing more than India, in particular, and England and Australia as well, asking for a bigger slice of the cake that they help to bake. Countries get money from the International Cricket Council (ICC) when they take part in its events. These ICC events are the bread and butter of international cricket, and provide most of the revenue that keeps the global game going.

These events are the World Twenty20 Championship, the 50-over World Cup, and the Champions Trophy. Six per cent of the proceeds of these tournaments go to the associate nations. Twenty-five per cent of the remainder of the net profit goes to the development of cricket, and the other 75 per cent is divided equally among the top cricket nations. This was the arrangement between 2007 and 2015.

On the surface, that appears fair, but when one realises that India has probably as big a cricket market as the rest of the cricket world combined, one begins to see things differently.

Put bluntly, when the ICC is selling the rights for these global events, the Indian market is responsible for a huge chunk of the media revenue. Depending on which figure you believe, this is anywhere from 40-60 per cent. In other words, if there were no India at these tournaments, the ICC could stand to lose, say, half the revenue that these tournaments generate. India and England, and Australia by extension, are now saying that if they contribute such a sizeable contribution to the coffers of world cricket, they must be compensated differently from the other countries. In principle, I have to support this position. One fundamental principle of business and, indeed, life in general, is that one must be compensated based on one's value, and India's value to the well-being of the world game should ensure that they be compensated accordingly.

The current proposal going forward from 2015 to 2023 will see countries getting a participation fee, but nations will also benefit separately from their perceived value and contribution to these global events, when tournament costs are taken out. It's not scientific at this point, and this must be ironed out so as not to cause bad blood in the future, but the principle is essentially sound. While the Big Three will benefit, countries like the West Indies won't lose. They have been guaranteed that their take from these tournaments will not be less, in the eight-year block from 2015-2023, than it was before, and will only improve if they bring greater value commercially. The West Indies' fortunes financially won't be any worse than they were before, and can go up exponentially, if we become better and more marketable.

negotiate

The current future tours programme sees the West Indies losing from tours that they have to undertake against the lesser teams, and also means that they don't make money from overseas tours. All that could change under the arrangement going forward. The West Indies will now be able to negotiate a fee for their overseas tours and will not necessarily be saddled with tours from which they lose.

The only catch to all this would be if the Big Three refuses to engage us regularly in the upcoming eight years, but I have been assured by the powers that be that contractual arrangements are already in place to ensure that we will be competing against the top nations so that we will be kept viable. All in all, the West Indies board did the right thing when they went along with the amended proposals.

Orville Higgins is a journalist on KLAS ESPN Sports Radio. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.