India, England and Australia would have near complete control over international cricket in major changes being considered by the game's governing body to possibly come into play next year.
A 21-page document from the International Cricket Council's influential financial and commercial affairs committee proposes that a new four-member executive committee be set up, with three of the places taken by the rich and powerful India, England and Australia boards. They will decide on the fourth member.
The "Position Paper" also recommends the troubled Test Championship which was set for introduction in 2017 be scrapped and the limited-overs Champions Trophy be retained in its place.
A promotion-relegation system to establish a reduced eight-country top tier for test cricket from 2015 is suggested instead, but with India, England and Australia, the so-called big three, immune from relegation because of "the importance of those markets and teams to prospective ICC media rights buyers."
The paper sets out a business model where India would receive the largest portion of ICC revenue, followed by England and Australia, and says that cricket should be run more as a "meritocracy" -- effectively where those who raise the most money control the finances, irrelevant to how the big three perform on the field.
"As part of the process, the leading countries of India, England and Australia have agreed that they will provide greater leadership at and of the ICC," the proposal document said, although it's uncertain if the ICC itself or the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the England and Wales Cricket Board and Cricket Australia are leading the reforms.
