Ahead of the ICC Board meeting in Cape Town this week, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) chief Thilanga Sumathipala said they will not support any move to bring back the ‘Big Three’ module. Sumathipala will leave to South Africa today to attend the board meeting.

The national boards of England, India and Australia were responsible for a radical overhaul of cricket’s world governing body, which included increased shares of global revenue for all three and powerful positions on a newly-formed executive committee.   

But this was shot down in February this year as ICC removed the so-called ‘big three’ from permanent positions on the executive committee and finance and commercial affairs committee.  

However Indian newspapers yesterday reported that BCCI—the Board of Control for Cricket in India—will campaign to get the ‘Big Three’ module back in the fray during the three-day meeting.  

“We certainly do not endorse this idea of entering the common revenue pool. Also the idea of Big Three must be revived and BCCI is having active discussions in this regard with ECB and CA,” Economic Times newspaper quoted a BCCI official as saying.  

However, Sumathipala said SLC will not back any move in this regard.  

 “As far as ‘Big Three’ we have always been against it. Cricket has to be equal. Equity has to be distributed equally among all members. We have nothing to do with big three at the moment and we have to maintain our position very clearly in this regard,” Sumathipala said.  

Sri Lanka was one of the two nations which did not support the ‘Big Three’ move when it was introduced in 2014.  “But I must tell you we are very concerned about the stability and the independence of BCCI given the current development of the board,” he added. (Champika Fernando)

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