Only fair they get their share of pound of flesh: Ravi Shastri wants India to get a bigger share of ICC revenue
With India claiming 38.5% of ICC's total revenue share for the 2024-27 cycle, former player Ravi Shastri defended the decision saying India should get an even bigger share considering their contribution to the cricket body's revenue.
'I would want more because most of the money that's generated comes from India. So it's only fair that they get their share of pound of flesh. It's relative, it's economies, if tomorrow there might be another economy that's stronger. Money might come from there like it did in the 70s, 80s and the chunk of the money went somewhere else. So I think it's only fair and, it just shows in the revenues,' Shastri said on Wisden.
'When India travel, look at the television rights, look at the television income that comes for an India series. So it's only fair that they get. Whatever they're getting now, if not more,' he added.
🗣️'When India travels, look at the television rights.' 📈
Ravi Shastri believes India deserve an even greater share of the ICC revenue 🇮🇳💰 pic.twitter.com/aoPnYfPkZz
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) June 26, 2025
Meanwhile, earlier this year, the World Cricketers' Association (WCA) had released an extensive report titled: 'History, Embracing Change. A Unified Coherent Global Future' to fix the current 'broken global structure' of cricket.
After a six-month review the WCA came up with key recommendations which include protected windows for international cricket, more equitable revenue distribution model that supports growth and competitive balance, better regulation of player movements in T20 leagues and an ICC that is a global governing body like FIFA and not a members' club.
The report said the current global cricket's finances are not optimised, balanced or used effectively to achieve competitive balance and growth, resulting in the sport not reaching its global potential.
Moreover, it also says players do not receive a fair earning relative to the wealth they generate. The report finds that 70% of the revenues are generated in just three months of the year and 83% of all revenue is shared between just three countries and the revenue generated by other than the Big Three — India, England and Australia — is less than 4%.
From this, payments to players is approximately around 10% of all revenue. To improve this, the WCA wants an optimal calendar to be in place which could result in an additional $246 million revenue annually. It calls for the establishment of minimum and maximum distribution parameters of ICC revenues. As an example, it says 'a minimum 2% and maximum 10% for the top 24 countries, and a minimum 10% distribution collectively for countries 25+.'
It means the BCCI share will cut from 38.5% to 10%. The WCA also wants in place a centralised Global Growth and Development Fund built from a percentage of ICC events revenue, T20 leagues and pooled media rights from CIC.
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