'ICC's structural changes a serious challenge to Sri Lanka Cricket'

Sri Lanka Cricket is set to oppose the proposed changes in the International Cricket Council's administrative structure which seeks to place India, Australia and England in a position of power over the rest of the members.

"It poses a serious challenge to Sri Lanka Cricket set-up," Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage said in Colombo on Tuesday.

He said the SLC's executive committee would meet on January 23 to take an official stance on the proposals which would then be conveyed to the ICC.

The radical reforms in a "position paper" drawn up by a working group of the ICC's Finance & Commercial Affairs (F&CA) committee is due to be put to the ICC Executive Board at its
quarterly meeting in Dubai on January 28-29.

Critics argue that almost every recommendation of the "position paper" gives a larger share of control over world cricket to the Australian, English and Indian cricket boards - both in the boardroom and on the field.

Cricket South Africa (CSA), the only board so far to publicly oppose the draft, has said that the structural overhaul of world cricket administration will effectively cede most executive decision-making to the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The three boards would also get a larger share of revenues, in a ratio that is linked to the ICC's revenue growth. CSA says their revenue as a result of the plan would fall below that of Pakistan.

Photograph: Francois Nel/Getty Images