MUMBAI: After Indian media made much ado about nothing over the BCCI’s approval for the Indian Cricketers Association (ICA), the body formed as per the board’s new constitution to look after the interest of former (emphasis ours) players, a real (again emphasis ours) players’ association has responded.
Tony Irish, executive chairman of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association (FICA), commented: “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.”
Irish is stating the obvious. But such obviousness is obviously lost on the powers that be in the BCCI. And will obviously be ignored.
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