adminWITH the International Cricket Council (ICC) annual conference set to begin in Barbados today, former vice-president of Canada Cricket, Howard Petrook has accused the world governing body of short-sightedness as far as growing the sport among the Associate member countries was concerned. Hitting out at ICC, Petrook said the world governing body was not serious about making cricket an Olympic sport.
“Time and again the ICC fails to help countries, not only Canada but Ireland, Holland and Scotland. It’s not me who says so; everybody in the associate countries will tell you that. They have Bangladesh and Zimbabwe as full members but they aren’t strong countries.
“A full member gets about $20-30 million a year. Give that money to Ireland or Canada and I absolutely guarantee you in five years we would be beating those smaller Test countries,” Petrook, who is the chairman of cricket at the Toronto’s iconic Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, said.
“Ireland are a good cricketing country and how do they grow from here. What’s the path for them to become a Test country? Well, nobody knows! What more do they have to do?” he asked ahead of today’s ICC annual meeting in the West Indies, where delegates from over 50 ICC member countries are expected to gather.
He also claimed that the ICC was not in “favour” of including cricket in Olympics.
“They (Canada Cricket) get about $500,000 a year, but it’s not enough. What they need is about $3 million. If they (ICC) really cared about cricket, then why it is not an Olympic sport? The IOC had invited them but ICC and the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) did not want it. It’s a very big deal for Canada and the US. If it’s an Olympic sport, you get a lot more government funding than a non-Olympic sport.”
There may be less than 300 archers in Canada but being an Olympic sport, they still get about $1,500,000 per year.
“I would be amazed to see 300 archers all over the country but still they get $1,500,000. Rugby, which has now become an Olympic sport, gets about $2 million.”
“If ICC really cared about cricket, why not help it become an Olympic sport?” he asked.
Cricket in Canada is quite popular and one of the fastest growing sports, and Petrook claimed ICC would make more money here than any other place.
“If the ICC makes cricket successful in North America, there’s more money here than the rest. There’s more TV dollars, more seats in the stadiums. So make the party bigger and you will have more choices, more TV revenues.
“We have more cricket leagues than they do in NZ, Zimbabwe and West Indies most probably. On any given weekend, 120-200 teams play in greater Toronto. It’s the fastest growing sport in schools in this province. There’s not a decline in participation but a certain decline in standards and discipline.”
Citing the example of US media giants ESPN’s acquisition of leading cricket portal Cricinfo in 2007, he said: “Why did ESPN buy Cricinfo? Because they knew cricket has a huge demand in North America. When they had the World Cup, the second highest hits were from North America. The online readership also goes through the roof when the World Cup is played. That tells you there’s a market. There’s enough interest among the expats in North America to fill the stadium. — First Post
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