Mark Nicholas: India 'get an awful lot right' with cricket governance

MCC chair Mark Nicholas believes India ‘get an awful lot right’ with regard to their governance of cricket as he prepares to host the second instalment of an innovative forum at Lord’s.

World Cricket Connects, which brings together influential figures from across all aspects of cricket, was the brainchild of Nicholas and senior executives at MCC, and is expanding to a two-day event in 2025 after a successful start last year.

A 13-strong World Cricket Connects Advisory Board has been formed ahead of this year’s discussions, which take place over the weekend of June 7-8, and includes former India captain Sourav Ganguly.

Themes including the state of the game, franchise cricket, women’s cricket and ‘is cricket cool?’ will be up for discussion at Lord’s, with panellists from a range of backgrounds invited to take part.

It comes amid a continuing shift of the global balance of cricketing power towards India and the BCCI in recent years, boosted by the behemoth that is the IPL.

Nicholas feels the nation’s administration is a force for good – but echoed the views of one of India’s finest cricketing brains as he weighed up their influence.

“Ravi Shastri made a good point at the start of last year’s event,” he said.

“He said that that for too long, imperialism ruled and England and Australia didn’t do a good enough job for the game – and now India mustn’t fall into that trap.

“It was quite interesting to hear that from him as he is very pro-Indian, as you would expect him to be, he has a fantastic cricket mind, and you could see he was speaking from deep in his heart.

“In general, India get an awful lot right in the way they are looking after cricket at the moment.

“In fairness to them, India play a lot of Tests and Virat Kohli, in particular, has been a massive supporter of Test cricket. India often get either misunderstood or misrepresented.”

On the field, an India side missing Kohli, who recently retired from Test cricket alongside fellow top order stalwart Rohit Sharma, are preparing for a five-match series in England this summer.

It is one former Hampshire batter Nicholas is relishing – and he believes the hosts will be confident of success.

“The Indian team is in transition with a new captain, the news Jasprit Bumrah is unlikely to play all five Tests, no Mohammad Shami, Rohit Sharma retiring and Virat Kohli, one of the greatest players of all time, gone as well,” he said.

“It will be interesting. England have a real opportunity to win that series and, to be honest, I would be surprised if England don’t win that series.

“But England’s seam attack needs to be a bit better. The trick will be how well England bowl.”

World Cricket Connects is an initiative dedicated to bringing together cricket stakeholders from around the world to discuss and shape the future of the sport. Through events, discussions, and collaborations, World Cricket Connects aims to foster innovation, inclusivity, and sustainability in cricket.