Former England batter and veteran match referee Chris Broad has stirred a hornet’s nest by accusing the International Cricket Council (ICC) of showing blatant leniency towards India during his time in the job.
Broad, who served for more than two decades as an ICC match referee, revealed that he was once directly asked to ‘go easy’ on India for a slow over-rate offence, a moment that, he says, exposed the political underbelly of world cricket.
The 68-year-old, who oversaw 622 international games across formats, claimed that his contract was not renewed in 2024 despite his willingness to continue. Having survived the job’s political dramas and even a terrorist attack in Lahore in 2009, Broad now looks back at the ICC with a more dystopian lens.
For years, India’s growing clout in the global game has shaped decisions both on and off the field. From broadcasting rights to the scheduling of tournaments, the BCCI’s financial muscle has often been the elephant in the ICC boardroom. Broad’s revelation, that he was once told to go easy on India for an over-rate offence, only restates the long-standing belief that some rules are bent depending on who’s in the dock.
‘Be lenient, find some time… because it’s India’
In an interview with The Telegraph, Stuart Broad’s father recounted the moment he was pressured to bend the rules for the Indian team.
‘India were three, four overs down at the end of a game so it constituted a fine,’ Broad said. ‘I got a phone call saying, ‘be lenient, find some time because it’s India.’ So we had to find some time and brought it down below the threshold.’
But leniency didn’t last long. In the very next match, then India captain Sourav Ganguly allegedly ignored the match referee’s warnings again. ‘He didn’t listen to any of the hurry-ups,’ Broad recalled. ‘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.’
‘India have taken over the ICC’
Broad, who first joined the ICC panel in 2003, also claimed that the body’s power structure has changed over the years, with India’s influence now overshadowing cricket’s governance.
‘India got all the money and have now taken over the ICC,’ Broad said. ‘It’s a much more political position now than it ever has been. I’m pleased I’m not around because it’s become weaker since Vince van der Bijl left.’
The former England opener, and father of legendary pacer Stuart Broad, was one of the ICC’s most senior referees before his exit. Despite his frustrations with the system, he looks back on his two-decade career as ‘a pretty good effort’, one that involved walking through political minefields and still managing to uphold some sense of integrity.