For representational purposes only
© AFP
Afghanistan qualified for the World T20 in 2010, Nepal did it for the edition in Bangladesh in 2014. UAE in fact, went a step ahead by booking a ticket for the Cricket World Cup 2015. These teams are the success stories of the Asian Cricket Council.
In 1983, the year Kapil's Devils lifted the World Cup, a few cricket lovers in suits got together to form the Asian Cricket Conference to enable cricket spread its wings in Asia. Their functions were coaching, umpiring and running sports medicine programmes in the member countries. So while� Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Sri Lanka were the founding members, there were nineteen others where the ACC operated. The members in 1995 eventually decided to rename it Asian Cricket Council.
The former president of the Council and BCCI's president Jagmohan Dalmiya had once told yours truly, "My dream is to see a Chinese bowler get a Japanese batsman clean bowled."
While Jagmohan Dalmiya helped raise money for the Council by making the Asia Cup a biennial event, his dreams of cricket in Japan hasn't come true in 32 years.
"ACC spends around 70 million dollars a year for its work in Asia. Most of this money is recovered through the Asia Cup," says CEO Ashraful Haq.
So after three decades of its existence, the body that was once the pillar of cricket in Asia will be winding down its operations. Haq says, " I do not think that ICC has monetary resources, physical resources or the keenness. ICC's general staff is non-Asian and I do not think Asia will be at the heart of their interest."
Except for a lucky few, most of ACC's staff has been laid off. There won't be a role for CEO Ashraful Haq, either.
An ACC insider has told the NDTV, "Following the structural changes in the ICC that saw powers rest with India, Australia and England, they did not see value in promoting the game in Asia. There is very little interest in spreading the game. The current regime is more interested in making money than being productive."
With N Srinivasan, the Chairman of ICC, having set the ball rolling on ICC's takeover of the ACC, there is very little one can hope for cricket in Asia now.
Already the news is out, Asia Cup for 2016 will be a T20 tournament. The next edition might go back to the 50 over format but with no structure framed yet, the future of the tournament looks uncertain.
N Srinivasan wants to transform World Cricket. His dreams are similar to his predecessor Jagmohan Dalmiya's. The difference is that Dalmiya tried to whip up the confidence of the stake holders and thereby garner his power and position , while Srinivasan is alienating them.� Whether the Chennai strongman's strategy works will be known when one more Associate nation from Asia makes it to a quadrennial event of the International Cricket Council.
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