Former Cricket South Africa president Dr. Ali Bacher has made some fiery comments about the big boards ‘marginalising’ the others, to enjoy complete dominance. “When I was the chairman of ICC’s development committee, my objective was to spread the game. It’s not happening today. Cricket today is dominated by India, Australia, and England. South Africa has been marginalised, Pakistan has been marginalised, West Indies has been marginalised. That’s not good,” Bacher, now 81, told PTI.
“You need to grow the game. The problem is that the finance of world cricket is dominated by India and 70 percent of world cricket money comes through India from whatever direction. I would like to see the development of smaller nations, that was my profound passion,” he said.
Cricket in the USA? No Chance
Meanwhile, the ICC is now aiming to promote cricket in the United States. But Bacher feels, it is now the most viable option.
“I don’t think it will grow massively as you expect it to grow in the USA. I was keen on spreading cricket as chairman of the ICC Development Committee, to get into the USA. Oh, it’s difficult,” he recollected. “You need billions and billions of dollars to get a small niche of that (USA) market. To be honest, I called it a day after two occasions. It wasn’t going to happen. The way it should happen is, growth of cricket should be in Asia. There is enormous potential. Not in the USA as its far too expensive,” he reasoned.
He went on to add, “The amount of money they spent on baseball, basketball, and rugby is massive. To get a small portion of that market costs billions dollars and it would take time. A lot easier to get cricket in Asia.
“South Korea, and Japan are huge markets potentially. If those countries take to baseball, why won’t they take to cricket?” he questioned. They have close touch with UK and the English empire. But don’t even try going to US, you will come short, I can tell you that,” he had a sort warning for ICC bigwigs.
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