ICC World Cup: Hosting became a bone of contention for India

Lahore: The hosting of the ICC ODI World Cup scheduled for the first year has become a bone of contention for the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI).

The Board of Cricket in India (BCCI) is yet to submit documents to the International Cricket Council (ICC) to issue tax-exempt visas for teams, media and fans despite passing several deadlines.

In this regard, the meeting of ICC in Dubai on March 20 has become important in which this issue will be raised again.

According to ICC rules, the host country of any event has to get tax exemption from the government, but Indian tax laws do not allow such tax exemption as required by ICC, if If the BCCI fails to get the tax exemption, the ICC could lose $116 million in tax at 21.84% on broadcast revenue, which would be borne by the BCCI and all other member nations.

Even in 2016, the Indian Cricket Board was not given tax exemption by its government on the ICCT20 World Cup, which incurred a loss of more than 22.5 million dollars and the matter is still in the ICC Tribunal. In this regard, the Indian board has repeatedly extended the deadline in ICC meetings, but according to reports, the matter has not been resolved yet.

On the other hand, the Indian board has not yet submitted the letter regarding the guaranteed issuance of visas for all the member countries' teams, officials, media and fans for the event, which was assured in the previous meetings.

In the meeting on March 20, if the Indian Cricket Board fails to submit the letters of tax exemption and visas, then there is a possibility of taking a tough stand by the member countries and there may be a demand to withdraw the hosting of the event from India. ICC expects to earn more than $530 million from the World Cup scheduled in India.

When contacted by Express News, ICC refused to comment on these important issues, ICC Senior Corporate Communication and PR Manager Mary Godbeer said that this is an internal matter of ICC, we are on it. Can't comment.