‘I was told to be lenient to India’: Referee Chris Broad slams ICC
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London: Former England batter Chris Broad has accused the International Cricket Council (ICC) of having shown ‘flagrant leniency’ to India when he was a match referee, The Indian Express reported.
The 68-year-old Broad, who was a match referee in international cricket for over two decades, said that he had been asked by ICC to show leniency to India’s over-rate offences at some point during his career.
Chris, father of England pace legend Stuart Broad, said that ICC did not renew his contract in 2024 in international cricket 21 years after his first appointment in 2003.
In an interview with The Telegraph, he said that he was happy to carry on but ‘But for 20 years, I dodged a lot of bullets, both politically and physically. I look back and I think, ‘you know, 20 years is quite a long time to be doing that job’.
Without giving details of the match for which he was asked to show leniency to India, Broad said the world cricket body pressured him into ‘finding time’ to support India’s over-rate offences.
‘India were three, four overs down at the end of a game so it constituted a fine. I got a phone call saying, ‘be lenient, find some time because it’s India’. And it’s like, right, OK. So we had to find some time, brought it down below the threshold. The very next game, exactly the same thing happened. He [Sourav Ganguly] didn’t listen to any of the hurry-ups and so I phoned and said, ‘what do you want me to do now?’ and I was told ‘just do him’. So there were politics involved, right from the start. A lot of the guys now are either politically more savvy or just keeping the head below the parapet. I don’t know,’ he was quoted as saying.
After overseeing 622 international games across formats, Broad’s extensive career as a match referee ended with a Test in February 2024 in Colombo.
Broad further claimed that integrity of ICC has eroded over the years since India started enjoying the power positions.
Pointing to the situation further he said: ‘I think we were supported by Vince van der Bijl (ICC umpires manager) while he was in position because he came from a cricketing background but, once he left, the management became a lot weaker. India got all the money and have now taken over the ICC so in many ways. I’m pleased I’m not around because it’s a much more political position now than it ever has been.’