Ravi Shastri minces no words as he explains why India deserve every ‘pound of flesh' from ICC revenue: ‘Look at…'
Amidst demands for greater equity in how cricket at the highest level shares its profits and revenues amongst players, member nations of the ICC, and other stakeholders, former Indian player and coach Ravi Shastri remains bullish about India receiving compensation for being the driver of the cricket economy. India and the BCCI currently earn 38.5% of the ICC's annual revenue model.(BCCI- X)
The recent past has seen a plethora of criticisms regarding how India receive the lion's share of the revenue generated by the ICC. Following a decision made in 2023, the BCCI has been set to receive 38.5% under the distribution structure, over five times as much as the next-highest band of national boards, those being England, Australia, and Pakistan.
Shastri, however, saw no issue with this, and saw it as the just results given how much the Indian market sustains the cricket economy, via the largest share of the audience as well as cricket's most profitable tournament in the IPL.
'Absolutely, I would want more. Because most of the money that's generated comes from India. So it's only fair that they get their share of pound of flesh,' claimed Shastri in an interview with Wisden. 'It's relative, it's economies. If tomorrow there might be another economy that's stronger, money might come from there like it did in the 70s-80s, and the chunk of the money went somewhere else.' Shastri argues overseas television income dependent on India
India's dominance over the distribution model has been further criticised as a symptom of the BCCI's increasing sway on the machinations of the ICC itself: while it is true that India's media rights and revenue generation dwarfs every other member nation of the ICC, it has also allowed for a greater political foothold in one of the widest-followed global sports.
This has reflected in India's ability to play the ICC Champions Trophy in 2025 on their terms, for example, or push for a larger chunk of the international window to be reallocated for the IPL in coming years.
Regardless, such is the financial boost that India brings to cricket with a potential audience of 1.4 billion people that Shastri believes there is an argument for even greater a share, pointing out how overseas tours often blossom when India are visiting.
'So I think it's only fair, and it shows in the revenues. When India travel, look at the television rights, look at the television income that comes for an India series. So it's only fair that they get whatever they're getting now, if not more,' concluded Shastri.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
13 minutes ago
- India Today
Hardik Pandya gets emotional on T20 World Cup win anniversary: Did it for my country
India all-rounder Hardik Pandya posted an emotional video on his social media handles, celebrating the first anniversary of India's T20 World Cup 2024 victory. India beat South Africa in the final of the tournament in a nerve-wracking final and ended their 11-year-long drought for an ICC played a key role in India's triumph as he added some quick runs (5 off 2) with the bat lower down the order in the first innings and later emerged as the pick of the bowlers for India, registering figures of 3/20 in three overs. Recalling his performance, Pandya said that he had manifested bowling the last over of a World Cup final and was elated to do the job for the me, playing for the country itself would have been a dream, a blessing, so much more because in 2011 I was on the road. I was doing the same, celebrating the same teams. Always thrived and enjoyed being in this situation. It gets the best out of me. I've always manifested me bowling the last over or me hitting the last run of the World Cup winning play. 6-7-8 months, which I had prior to that really, really proud the way I was able to stand and maybe not show a lot of emotions or how I have been going through. It just came off the pressure of shoulder carrying such weights just came off and I was like finally I did it for the country,' said Pandya in a video shared on his social media handles.A day I'll never forget. A day we'll never forget. For all of us, India hardik pandya (@hardikpandya7) June 29, 2025advertisement Pandya orchestrated India's comeback in the match from a precarious position as he dismissed a well-set Heinrich Klaasen (52 off 27) in his second over. Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh also piled on the pressure by giving nothing away in the next two overs. With 16 runs needed to win off the last six balls, Pandya was entrusted to bowl the last over of the the very first delivery of the final over, South Africa's David Miller hit a full toss high in the air towards long-off. However, the southpaw failed to get the distance with the ball dropping just inside the boundary towards Suryakumar, who managed to grab it momentum was taking Suryakumar over the boundary, but he showed great presence of mind to get rid of the ball at the right time as he stepped outside the boundary. He quickly jumped inside to once again grab hold of the ball and completed one of the greatest catches ever in the final of an ICC rest of the batters couldn't do much damage as Pandya successfully defended the target of 177 and set up a seven-run win for India. Virat Kohli was adjudged Player of the Match for his innings of 76 (59) while Jasprit Bumrah was adjudged Player of the Tournament for scalping 15 wickets.- EndsMust Watch
Mint
16 minutes ago
- Mint
After ‘stupid, stupid, stupid' moment in Australia, Rishabh Pant shut off his phone, began ‘most intense training'
Rishabh Pant made a name among the greats of the game as he became only the second wicket-keeper batter in the history of the game to score a a century in both the innings of a Test match. The left handed batter registered scores of 134 and 118 in the two innings of the match but his efforts eventually went down in vain as India failed to defend a total of 371 in the fourth innings. Pant, however, has had a remarkable turnaround having gone from a rare poor spell of form in Test series against Australia earlier in the year to warming the bench in the Champions Trophy and later failing to score big in his maiden outing as the captain of Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL. In Australia, Pant managed to score only 255 runs at an average of 28.33 in the five matches. His innings included just 24 boundaries and 6 sixes which is a rarity for the southpaw who often takes the attack to the bowlers in the longer format of the game. According to a new report by The Times of India, Rishabh Pant realised that something was wrong with his batting after failing with a ramp shot in the first innings of the Melbourne Test — a dismissal which later became infamous due to former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar's comment "Stupid, stupid, stupid". From then until he finally demonstrated his true potential in the Leeds Test, it was a long journey for Pant, who had already experienced many highs and lows in his career. In March 2025, the batter uninstalled WhatsApp from his phone and kept his phone switched off unless he needed to contact someone. This was reportedly an attempt to remove the clutter from his mind after going through a chaotic cricketing season. The batter also went through a 'punishing' routine after being benched from the Indian team during Champions Trophy which was described by Soham Desai, India's strength and conditioning coach till before the England series. Speaking to TOI, Desai said, 'He did the most intense sessions, day in and day out. He dragged me into the gym whenever he was free. He didn't care about fatigue or workload programmes. All he said was he needed to keep working on himself. On the day of the final, he came to me with some kind of guilt in his mind and asked if he could take the day off. I said it was high time that he did,' 'Pant has so much in reserve that he will be fine for at least a year without having to do anything extraordinary. That's why you see him moving around so well despite scoring two hundreds and keeping wickets for so long in the Headingley Test,' he added.
India.com
17 minutes ago
- India.com
Rohit Sharma expresses his feeling before the T20 World Cup final, Team India's ODI captain says...
Rohit Sharma. (PIC - X) New Delhi: Rohit Sharma has revealed how nervous he was before the T20 World Cup 2024 final and what his feelings were about this match. India won the T20 World Cup title by defeating South Africa by seven runs on 29 June 2024, a day a year ago today. With this, the Rohit Sharma-led team ended the 11-year drought of winning the ICC tournament. What was in Rohit Sharma's mind? Recalling the final match, Rohit told how he couldn't sleep properly a day before the final due to nervousness. Rohit said on a sports channel program, 13 years is a very long time. Most people's careers don't even last 13 years. Therefore, I had to wait for such a long time to win the World Cup. I last won the World Cup in 2007. For me, nothing could have been bigger than this. Rohit Sharma's statement 'I couldn't sleep the whole night. All I could think about was the World Cup. I was nervous. I couldn't feel my legs. Was I nervous? Of course. I don't show it, but inside, it was a lot. We had to leave around 8:30 or 9 in the morning, but I woke up at seven. From my room I could see the ground and just kept looking at it. I remember thinking, 'In two hours I will be there and in four hours the result will be out. Either the cup will be here or not,' said Rohit Sharma How was the T20 World Cup final? Winning the toss and batting first in the final match, India scored 176 runs in 20 overs, losing seven wickets. In reply, South Africa could score 169 runs in 20 overs, losing eight wickets. With this victory, India ended the 11-year ICC trophy drought. India had earlier won the Champions Trophy in 2013. At the same time, India won the T20 World Cup after 17 years and the World Cup after 13 years. In 2011, India won the ODI World Cup. In what format did Rohit Sharma take retirement? After India's victory, Virat Kohli had announced that he will not play in this format for India anymore, but will continue to play in the IPL. After this, in the press conference, Rohit also gave a double shock to the fans by saying goodbye to the T20 International.
