Asia's top sports official slammed cricket administrators Saturday, saying their obsession with money was "killing" the game and stopping it spreading to new countries. Cricket was included as an Asian Games medal sport for the second time in Incheon, but as at Guangzhou, China in 2010, no major side sent a full-strength squad. Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, president of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said cricket chiefs were so fixated with business that they were neglecting the sport.
"The people who are in charge of cricket are looking to be businesspeople and they want money more than promotion for the game," he told reporters. "They want to control the market, they want to control the game, they want to keep the big athletes for their own. This is not sport, this is business."
The International Cricket Council (ICC) recently voted changes that mean the so-called "big three" of India, England and Australia effectively run the governing body between them. If a new television rights deal is concluded the trio, in particular India, will become even wealthier. "They are looking for business view more than sports view and they are killing cricket," Sheikh Ahmad said.