After the BCCI confirmed the long-awaited formation a former cricketers’ association, the global players’ representative body in cricket expressed its concerns over the structure of the organisation.
The Indian Cricketers Association is currently not affiliated to Federation of International Cricketers’ Association and is only open to former men and women cricketers, unlike the players’ associations in most countries.
FICA Executive Chairman, Tony Irish, however, expressed concern that over nearly 600 active cricketers being left without any representation.
Irish, calling it a positive development, added, “FICA is however concerned that membership of the association appears to be open only to former players, and not current players. This is at odds with most other players’ associations around the world, not only in cricket but across other sports.”
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The ICA, formed as per the board’s new constitution to look after the interest of former players, will be headed by former India cricketers Kapil Dev, Ajit Agarkar, and Shantha Rangaswamy for now. They will hold their positions until elections are held.
But the ICA will not be a part of the FICA like the players’ associations in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or England.
“No, as of now, the BCCI constitution doesn’t have any clause where the ICA can be a part of FICA,” Vinod Rai had said back in May this year.
Full statement from FICA’s Tony Irish:
The formation and recognition of a collective player representative body in India is a positive development.
FICA is however concerned that membership of the association appears to be open only to former players, and not current players. This is at odds with most other players’ associations around the world, not only in cricket but across other sports, whose core focus is the collective representation of current players, in addition to offering support and services for former players.
Based on the reports, it appears that more than 600 current professional players in India will effectively remain unrepresented, and without a voice in the game, at both domestic and global levels. We believe that the global game would benefit significantly from the existence of a genuinely independent and representative voice for the current Indian players.
FICA will nevertheless offer its assistance in relation to any former player support programs which an Indian players’ association looks to develop, given that FICA is part of a global network of players’ associations which run world-leading programs in this space.
With PTI inputs