Legendary West Indies cricketer Sir Clive Lloyd has urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) to address the financial inequality in the global revenue distribution model.
Lloyd was speaking after he received the Order of the Caribbean Community (OCC), which is the highest honour in the region of Grenada, a country located in the Caribbean.
Lloyd, who led West Indies to consecutive ODI World Cups in 1975 and 1979, gave a timely reminder to the global cricketing fraternity that there wasn’t any financial reward for the West Indies board during the team’s glory days. According to Lloyd, with the global game now “on a sounder fiscal footing”, it was time for the West Indies to get their fare share.
“Over the years in our ascendancy we did not ask for any extra money. But now I’m told when they have distribution of funds at the ICC, England receives $180 million, Australia $180 million, India $180 million, and we are $80 million. I want to know, where do they get this disparity?” Barbados Today quoted Lloyd as saying.
In 2015, the ICC revenue distribution model was restructured. The shares were distributed to the boards based on how much the countries contribute to the ICC revenue. India generate almost 90 per cent of the revenue, as per a report in Cricbuzz, with the BCCI receiving almost 39 per cent of the income.
“Because when we were leading, everybody wanted to play – we were playing two tours in the winter. We were the cash cow for these guys. But now that we might be a little down in the dumps, nobody now is saying, well you know West Indies do need some help,” the 79 year-old added.
“And I think that it’s about time that our board men make a special call to the ICC. Send 10 or 12 people who we know have the pull, and that extra that is needed, to tell them that we need some special dispensation,” he explained.
“Sir Clive pointed out that the financial imbalance has always been there, even when West Indies were winning, but that it is worse now that more money is coming into cricket,” the Barbados Today report added Lloyd as saying.