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Mani: 'It's all about development'

At a glitzy function to mark the India launch of the ICC Champions Trophy 2004, Ehsan Mani, the president of the ICC, and Malcolm Speed, the chief executive, spelled out the plans they had for the tournament, and what they hoped to achieve

Anand Vasu
Anand Vasu
20-Jul-2004


Ehsan Mani launches the ICC Champions Trophy © Getty Images
At a glitzy function to mark the India launch of the ICC Champions Trophy 2004, Ehsan Mani, the president of the ICC, and Malcolm Speed, the chief executive, spelled out the plans they had for the tournament, and what they hoped to achieve.
When asked how the ICC planned spent the money generated by the event, Mani said: "All the money coming out of the Champions Trophy goes into development. We have allocated US$13million from each event for development in associate and affiliate member countries. Anything over that goes into development of full member countries. So, every penny of profit or surplus earned from these tournaments goes into development."
On the subject of money, Mani was reminded of the problems the ICC faced with relation to players' contracts. Mani was emphatic in stating that he expected none of the problems that blighted last year's World Cup to crop up this time around. "Since then we have been in discussion with all the boards and our commercial partners and there is no disagreement on the way forward, so I don't expect their to be any dispute at all on this matter."
While Mani dealt with the big picture, Speed got down to the nitty-gritties. As has already been announced, the ICC will be experimenting with the use of technology to aid umpires in the Champions Trophy. The first stem would be "wiring the umpires" to earphones that play the output from the stump microphones. The second step involves giving the third umpire the power to adjudicate on no-balls. This gives the standing umpire an opportunity to focus on decisions at the batsman's end.
"That Champions Trophy is the perfect opportunity to experiment, in that we have the twelve teams together," said Speed. "It's a short, sharp tournament played over three grounds, so it's not difficult to get the cameras in place to do the research. All of the top umpires and referees are there, so we get feedback from them at one time. We can talk to the captains about their response to it.
"This experimentation has minimum impact on the cricket that is played. It is not going to affect anything that the players are doing. They will be told that the umpires are wired and that the third umpire would call the no-balls. There might be a slight delay between the third umpire being able to signal to the standing umpire and he then signalling the no-ball. The players want the umpires to focus at the business end and get it right there."
The last edition of the tournament, held in Sri Lanka, was jointly won by India and Sri Lanka, when rain washed the final out at the halfway mark even on the reserve day. That is something that won't happen this time around. "We play on the first day. If the match is not concluded we continue, not replay, it on the second day," said Speed. "If we get to the second day and the match is then weather-affected, Duckworth Lewis will apply on the second day only."
The participation of the United States of America, who qualified through an ICC feeder tournament, has been a big step forward in the development of the game in that region. This is something both Mani and Speed looked forward to with excitement. "We have targeted that USA as an important region for development of cricket," said Mani. "There are huge amounts of people who play the game there. Expatriate West Indian and Asian cricketers make for a very active scene. I believe there are about 10,000 active cricketers in the USA and that's more than, say Nepal. What we have done is agreed to allocate resources in the United States, we will appoint a chief executive there soon."
However, Speed was quick to clarify that the ICC was not looking to compete with established sports in the USA: "We're not saying we want cricket to be the next NFL, NBA or MLB. But, there is an opportunity for cricket to come into the USA because of the huge number of expatriates. What we're seeking to do is start the game using these expatriates, and then take the game forward. We see it ultimately as being an effective niche sport in USA, not something that challenges the big ones."