Cricket: Gloves off as Mani lashes Indians

International Cricket Council president Ehsan Mani has lashed out at India's new administration, only hours after a more formal reprimand was delivered from the chief executive, Malcolm Speed.

Plainly frustrated with India's apparent threat to the ICC's agreed touring programme, Mani yesterday rubbished the new board's stance as "short-sighted and nonsensical".

He said it was based on a flawed understanding of the world game.

BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi told a media conference in Mumbai this week that India would not participate in the Champions Trophy beyond this year.

India were keen to arrange their own bilateral series instead of being participants in the ICC's Future Tours Programme.

The fallout from the press conference proved too much for Speed, who yesterday wrote an unusually forthright letter to the honorary secretary of the BCCI, Niranjan Shah, querying what he described as "unilateral decisions contrary to ICC policy".

However, Speed's rebuke paled into insignificance when compared with the broadside delivered yesterday by Mani, who not only told the BCCI that it was poorly informed, but also dished out some advice to their board members regarding conduct.

"When you are in a new position you should listen, understand and then speak," he told the Times of India. "Unfortunately we keep getting statements from the new BCCI officials. They have not fully understood how the ICC works and still keep raising these issues in the public domain."

The ICC president said there was nothing new about the regulation that gave ICC events and the Future Tours Programme priority over bilateral contests; that is, a series arranged by two countries outside the formal itinerary.

And Mani also took the chance to remind India that they, or at least their previous BCCI office-holders, had agreed to the priority criteria at the ICC meeting in Sydney last October.

"All countries including Mr Mahendra [the-then BCCI president] voted for ICC events till 2015," he said. "This also included the Champions Trophy.

"As far we [the ICC] are concerned the event is on and the decision has been made."

He strongly disagreed with India's assertion that the Champions Trophy was a lame duck, saying it was fantastic for the development of the game, and for providing resources for the ICC's 86 member nations.

"If we keep playing the same number of teams the game will not survive for a long time. It has to grow," he said.

"The BCCI has to realise that money in the bank is no good if there is no sport."

WHAT INDIA WANT

* An end to the ICC-sponsored Champions Trophy, because it clashes with their peak season.

* More high-profile internationals against heavyweight rivals such as Australia and England (and by definition, fewer against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and New Zealand).

* An end to the ICC's Future Tours Programme, so countries arrange their own schedules.

* A slice of the lucrative television rights generated from overseas tours.

* A television production arm, including staff commentators.