Sport - Cricket

CA’s advice to BCCI

Melbourne: Irked by BCCI’s reluctance to accept the one-Test ban on Gautam Gambhir, Cricket Australia (CA) on Thursday advised the Indian cricket board to assure greater leadership, instead of using its financial clout to serve self-interest.

CA Chief Executive James Sutherland criticised BCCI for challenging the one-Test ban which Match Referee Chris Board slapped on Gambhir for elbowing Shane Watson in the Delhi Test. According to him, BCCI needed to use its financial clout far more responsibly.

“The power that India has is connected a lot to financial contribution they make to the game,” Sutherland said.

“Something like 70 per cent of cricket’s revenue is generated out of India and to that end, it means that they have, in recent times, come to realise that with that they can influence more than perhaps they have done in the past.

“With that ability to influence obviously comes power, and as someone once told me, with wealth comes responsibility,” said the CA top official.

“That’s something that, I guess, ideally, we would like to see India to continue take a leadership role in helping the game to be better rather than ... taking these sort of issues, with Gambhir, down the wrong path,” Sutherland was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press. — PTI

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