Discontent is growing in cricket’s global boardroom as all member boards face the prospect of a reduction in their share from the ICC’s central revenues.

The reduction is likely on account of – among other factors – ICC’s rising operational costs, hosting extra events, and the addition of two new full members.

In quantum, the Indian cricket the (BCCI) stands to lose the most, with its projected revenue for the ICC having dipped to us$372 million from the us$405 million that had been originally forecast – the former figure was what new BCCI president Sourav Ganguly referred to on the day he took over.

However, smaller boards, more dependent on the ICC pay-out, might feel the squeeze more; six boards were forecast revenues of us$128 million over eight years, which has now dipped to approximately us$115 million.

The ICC and its members agreed upon a new financial model in 2017, which rolled back changes in revenue distribution worked out by the cricket boards from India, England and Australia, referred to as the big three, who had granted themselves a larger share of the global revenues.

The way the ICC’s rights deals work means that these are not final but only projected figures. The original targets could still be hit, and the revenue distribution model is based on percentage, and not actual figures. And those percentages remain the same. The calculations for the 2017 model were based on the projection that the ICC earns us$2.7 billion from the 2016-2023 rights cycle.

But costs are also projected to be higher because of the introduction of an extra ICC event in this cycle – the first u19 women’s t20 world cup, to be played in Bangladesh in 2021.

Further, since the 2017 financial model was confirmed, two new full members have arrived, in Ireland and Afghanistan, and though their shares are lower at us$40 million each, it is still a share from the full member pie – which was projected to be us$1.5 billion (out of the us$2.7 billion total rights earning).

The ICC pays out members their revenues twice every year in the rights cycle (in January and July) but because the value of each tournament is different (both from a broadcast and commercial perspective) the pay-outs vary.

So any tournament in India will always be worth more in a rights deal and as a result the pay-outs are greater once those tournaments are over.