France Cricket implodes: letters hidden in a drawer and a board at war

A February letter from the sports ministry was explosive for French cricket.

Arriving at France Cricket’s Saint-Maurice headquarters on February 11, the letter declared that no mandate for the sport had been granted for 2026-2029 and underscored that no cricket squad had the right to call itself an official team of “France”.

Minutes from a June 26 board meeting – published July 7 on the France Cricket website before being deleted within half an hour, and archived by FRANCE 24 – show that, for weeks, France Cricket’s elected board was apparently not told of ministry letters confirming it had lost official status.

The minutes contain email and text exchanges with Chairman Prebagarane Balane in which he denied receiving notice from the sports ministry.

When the February letter first arrived, France Cricket’s administrative officer emailed a PDF version to Balane, copying CEO Saravana Durairaj and the organisation’s lawyer, Alexis Rutman. Later asked by Treasurer Prethevechand Thiyagarajan to account for what happened, she stated that Balane had instructed her to forward it. 

By the time a second ministry letter arrived on March 6, those instructions had changed. According to the minutes, the administrative officer texted Balane to say she had not opened the envelope, in line with his instructions, and had placed it in his drawer, sending him a photograph of it.

When she emailed the same three recipients to notify them of its arrival, she says Balane called her, angry that she had copied in colleagues and reminding her he had told her to keep the letter to herself. She recalled the email; the lawyer had already read it, according to her statement, but the CEO had not. She texted Balane to tell him the recall had worked. He replied with thumbs-up emojis.

By this time, France Cricket’s loss of status was no secret – FRANCE 24 reported in December that its recognition would soon lapse.

But on March 25, Thiyagarajan wanted to know whether it was official. In an email to the chairman and copied to the board, he asked for confirmation that the ministry had not yet sent a letter. Balane replied that his reading was correct. In another message that morning, Balane said a letter was expected the following week. 

Two days later, Balane wrote to the sports ministry saying he had never received the February letter. The ministry emailed him a copy and said it had been dispatched to France Cricket’s address on February 3.

When a third ministry envelope arrived days later postmarked March 30, the meeting minutes show the administrative officer again texted Balane to say she had put it directly in his drawer and that this time she had told no one else, notably neither the lawyer nor the CEO. Balane acknowledged her message.

The minutes from the June 26 board meeting carried another bombshell: Balane’s resignation, to take effect on July 17. He is on record as saying that he served France Cricket for years and wanted the organisation to move forward under new leadership.

Balane did not respond to questions from FRANCE 24 about the letters, his possible resignation or the removal of the minutes from the France Cricket website. In an email to Thiyagarajan included in the annexes, Balane said Rutman handled all exchanges relating to the organisation’s status.

Read moreAllegations of fake matches, murky finances plague cricket in France

On notice

With France Cricket in turmoil, relations with the International Cricket Council (ICC) have reached a new low.

In a letter cited in the June 26 minutes, the sport’s global body asked why France Cricket had continued to approve official “France” teams after being told it could not, and why board minutes from an April meeting were never published.

Under France Cricket’s own internal regulations, board minutes must be published on its website within a week of the meeting.

On July 6, France Cricket published – and within two hours, removed – the minutes of a July 3 meeting that detailed further demands from the ICC: a multi-year development plan and a plan to reform its governance to the standard required of a recognised federation, with a progress report due within six months.

In response, France Cricket produced a 45-page governance “white paper” that the meeting minutes showed was adopted unanimously and sent to the ICC ahead of its annual conference, which took place in Edinburgh July 8-11. At the same meeting, Secretary General Patricia Clément, Treasurer Thiyagarajan and CEO Durairaj – but not Balane – were named the body’s official contacts with the ICC.

Then, in Edinburgh, the ICC made its move.

“France Cricket were placed on notice at the ICC Annual Conference 2026 on account of their non-compliance with the ICC Membership Criteria,” an ICC spokesperson told FRANCE 24 on July 18.

“They have 12 months to rectify the areas of non-compliance.”

According to The Cricketer, the ICC found France Cricket in breach of its rules on four counts: a “lack of appropriate legal status and national recognition”; a “governance framework/structure being not fit for purpose”; an “executive, administrative and corporate structure being not fit for purpose”; and a “failure to submit a compliant three-year National Development Plan”.

France Cricket’s June 26 meeting minutes note that ICC funding had been blocked. The Cricketer reported the ICC suspended funding with immediate effect on June 16. France Cricket was due $560,000 in ICC development funding for 2026-2027.

Read moreFrench women’s cricket team disbands after probe into fake matches

Out of the crease

France Cricket lost government recognition on January 1, when its mandate to run the sport through France’s baseball and softball federation lapsed and was not renewed. A would-be rival, the multi-sport body ASPTT, applied for the ministry’s mandate and then withdrew, leaving cricket with no recognised governing body in France at all.

France Cricket has been under scrutiny since a 2023 FRANCE 24 investigation revealed allegations that it had staged fake matches to access ICC funding. The affair prompted 17 members of the women’s national team to demand an inquiry; the team was subsequently disbanded.

Read moreFrance Cricket faces power struggle as government backing hangs in the balance

FRANCE 24 revealed in April that France Cricket fielded a senior men’s team at an ICC-ranked tournament in Portugal despite losing government recognition. The sports ministry said France Cricket could not legally field a national team, and legal experts said those responsible could face civil or criminal liability. 

France Cricket went on to compete in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe qualifier in Cyprus in May, entered as “France Cricket XI” but playing with “FRANCE” across players’ shirts.

Asked by FRANCE 24 about fielding teams without state recognition, an ICC spokesperson said France Cricket “has the same right to participate as any other of our members”.

ICC membership criteria require a member to have national recognition in its home country. For now, during the 12-month window, France Cricket keeps the rights of any other member: it can compete internationally, provided its teams enter as “France Cricket” rather than “France”.

But its place in world cricket now depends on regaining the recognition it has lost at home; and the French state, which controls that recognition along with public funding and the right to field an official national team, continues to refuse.

In a BBC podcast published June 6, Balane defended his organisation’s conduct. He denied reports of “ghost” matches and said France Cricket was appealing the ministry’s refusal to grant a mandate and would go to court if the appeal failed.

That appeal was rejected, according to the minutes of the June 26 board meeting.

“I [have been] president for almost 12 years,” he told BBC broadcaster Alison Mitchell. “We are volunteers doing it by passion and to develop cricket.”

A seat at the ICC’s top table

Even as France Cricket’s standing collapsed at home, its vice-president was rising in the world of cricket. In Edinburgh, Gurumurthy Palani was elected to the ICC’s 16-member board as one of three associate member directors, topping the poll with 35 of 43 eligible votes and unseating Imran Khwaja, an associate director since 2008. The ICC then named Palani chair of its Development Committee, the body responsible for growing the game in smaller cricketing nations, even as it placed France Cricket on notice.

Palani no longer appears on France Cricket’s website; an archived version shows he was listed as vice-president as recently as June 29. The June 26 minutes record that he had told the board he might have to step back from the organisation if elected. Palani did not reply to a request for comment.

The France Cricket board was due to meet again on July 17, when Balane’s resignation would have taken effect. But the meeting did not take place.