Tony Greig slams BCCI for killing the spirit of cricket, says Indian board more concerned about money

Former England captain Tony Greig has urged India to accept that "spirit of cricket is more important than generating billions of dollars" says a report in The Times Of India.

India is cricket's economic powerhouse, driving the finance of the global game through the sponsorship and broadcast deals that derive from the sport's huge popularity in the world's second most populous nation. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) also oversees the lucrative Twenty20Indian Premier League franchise tournament.

However, many observers believe the BCCI has used its huge influence for its own interests rather than those of the global game and that, as a result, the International Cricket Council(ICC) is not functioning properly.

Meanwhile Indian Express reports says that delivering MCC's Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at the Lord's, Grieg said the longest format of the game was being marginalised because India was interested in "generating billions of dollars" by monopolising on success of Twenty20 cricket through Indian Premier League and Champions League.

He said India must shed it selfish attitude to game's problems and adhere to the "spirit of cricket".
"India is preoccupied with money and T20 and sees its IPL and CLT20 more important than international calendar. To compound the problems, India has not only sold part of game to private interests but some of her administrators are seen to have a conflict of interest, which makes it more difficult for it to act in the spirit of the game," Greig said.

"India's apparent indifference towards Test cricket and response towards some of the key issues, its attitude to the earlier ICC corruption inquiries, its indifference to urgency to introduce anti-doping rules, the rumoured corruption hanging over IPL and its role in the lack of due process in stopping former Australian prime minister John Howard being appointed vice-president of the ICC – are all examples of disappointing decisions," he said.