Twelve former Indian cricketers have said that India should play in the Champions Trophy as doubts surround whether they will.

ESPNCricinfo contacted twelve former players – namely Tendulkar, Dravid, Zaheer Khan, Gundappa Viswanath, Sandeep Patil, Sanjay Manjrekar, Aakash Chopra, Ajit Agarkar, Venkatesh Prasad, Saba Karim, Murali Kartik, and Deep Dasgupta – to ask whether India should partake in the Champions Trophy and defend their crown. The decision was unanimous: they should.

The doubts surrounding their participation arose after the BCCI missed the deadline to submit their squad on 25 April. The board said that the delay was ‘operational’, but there are concerns that it has to do with the ICC’s decision to review their financial model, which will see the BCCI receive a reduced share when compared to the existing ‘Big Three’ model.

The BCCI were outvoted by a massive margin at the board meeting in April, with the ICC approving a new constitution, governance structure and financial model. A part of the BCCI are strongly in favour of revoking the Members Participation Agreement with the ICC, which would rule India out of participating in all ICC tournaments until 2023.

A final decision about India’s participation in the Champions Trophy is likely to be taken by the BCCI at its special general body meeting on May 7 in Delhi.

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