| Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI |
|
| Sport | Cricket |
| Area of jurisdiction | India |
| Formation date | 1928 |
| Affiliation | International Cricket Council |
| Headquarters | Mumbai |
| President | N. Srinivasan |
| Secretary | Sanjay Jagdale |
| Coach | Duncan Fletcher |
| Sponsor | Sahara India Financial Corporation Limited |
| Official website | |
| www.bcci.tv | |
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), headquartered at Mumbai, is the national governing body for all cricket in India. It's not the apex governing body in India. The board was formed in December 1928 as BCCI replaced Calcutta Cricket Club. BCCI is a society, registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act. It often uses government-owned stadiums across the country at a nominal annual rent. It is a "private club consortium". Basically to become a member of a state-level association, one needs to be introduced by another member and also pay an annual fee. The state-level clubs select their representatives (secretaries) who in turn select the BCCI officials. BCCI are not required to make their balance sheets public. In the past, tax exemptions were granted to BCCI on the grounds as promoting cricket was a charitable activity but for the last three years the IPL has questioned this.[1]
As a member of the International Cricket Council (ICC), it has the authority to select players, umpires and officials to participate in international events and exercises total control over them. Without its recognition, no competitive cricket involving BCCI-contracted Indian players can be hosted within or outside the country.
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The BCCI logo is derived from the emblem of the Order of the Star of India, India's highest order of chivalry during the British Raj and also its Coat of Arms.
The BCCI has 27 state association members across five zones (viz. North Zone, South Zone, East Zone, West Zone and Central Zone) in India.
Super-League:
Plate-League:
The post of President of B.C.C.I is considered a highly prestigious post due to the popularity of the game in the country and the financial clout of the organization. Over the years influential politicians and businessmen have occupied the post of President.
| # | Name | Took Office | Left Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | R.E. Grant Govan | 1928 | 1933 |
| 2 | Sikandar Hyat Khan | 1933 | 1935 |
| 3 | Hamidullah Khan | 1935 | 1937 |
| 4 | Digvijaysinhji of Nawanagar | 1937 | 1938 |
| 5 | P. Subbarayan | 1938 | 1946 |
| 6 | Anthony S. D'Mello | 1946 | 1951 |
| 7 | J.C. Mukherji | 1951 | 1954 |
| 8 | Maharajkumar of Vizianagram | 1954 | 1956 |
| 9 | Sardar Surjitsingh Majithia | 1956 | 1958 |
| 10 | R.K. Patel | 1958 | 1960 |
| 11 | M. A. Chidambaram | 1960 | 1963 |
| 12 | Fatehsinghrao Gaekwad | 1963 | 1966 |
| 13 | Z.R. Irani | 1966 | 1969 |
| 14 | A.N. Ghose | 1969 | 1972 |
| 15 | P.M. Rungta | 1972 | 1975 |
| 16 | Ramprakash Mehra | 1975 | 1977 |
| 17 | M. Chinnaswamy | 1977 | 1980 |
| 18 | S. K. Wankhede | 1980 | 1982 |
| 19 | N.K.P. Salve | 1982 | 1985 |
| 20 | S. Sriraman | 1985 | 1988 |
| 21 | B.N. Dutt | 1988 | 1990 |
| 22 | Madhavrao Scindia | 1990 | 1993 |
| 23 | I.S. Bindra | 1993 | 1996 |
| 24 | Raj Singh Dungarpur | 1996 | 1999 |
| 25 | A.C. Muttaiah | 1999 | 2001 |
| 26 | Jagmohan Dalmiya | 2001 | 2004 |
| 27 | Ranbir Singh Mahendra | 2004 | 2005 |
| 28 | Sharad Pawar | 2005 | 2008 |
| 29 | Shashank Manohar | 2008 | 2011 |
| 30 | Narayanaswami Srinivasan | 2011 | Incumbent |
The BCCI organises the following domestic cricket competitions in this order :
In 1911, an all-India cricket team visited England for the first time, sponsored and captained by the Maharaja of Patiala, and featuring the best cricketers of the time. It was in 1926 that two representatives of the Calcutta Cricket Club travelled to London to attend a couple of meetings of the Imperial Cricket Conference, predecessor to the current International Cricket Council. Although technically not an official representative of Indian cricket, it was allowed to attend by Lord Harris, chairman of the conference. An outcome of the meeting was the MCC's decision to send a team to India, led by Arthur Gilligan, who had captained England in The Ashes. The Hindus, as well as the all-India team, performed impressively during this tour.
In a meeting with the Maharaja of Patiala and others, Gilligan praised Indian cricket and promised to press for its inclusion in the ICC if all the promoters of the game in the land came together to establish a single controlling body. An assurance was given and a meeting held in Delhi on November 21, 1927, attended by delegates from Sindh, Punjab, Patiala, Delhi, United Provinces, Rajputana, Alwar, Bhopal, Gwalior, Baroda, Kathiawar and Central India. A consensus was reached to create a board for control of cricket in India. Another meeting, on December 10, 1927, brought a unanimous decision to form a "provisional" board of control to represent cricket in India.
In December 1928, the BCCI was formed despite having only six associations affiliated to it as against the earlier-decided eight. R.E. Grant Govan was made its first president and Anthony De Mello its first secretary.[2]
In December 2005, the Board released "The Cricket Board in the 21st Century, A Vision Paper", which set out ambitions and responsibilities for both the immediate and the long-term future of cricket in India. "Frankly," it said, "the question being asked is, as the richest body in world cricket, has it fulfilled its obligations towards the players and paying public? For that we all need to introspect and touch our hearts before saying 'yes, we have'."[3] Almost three years later, Ajay S Shankar of Cricinfo compared the paper with subsequent fact and decided that the Board had failed in most respects to fulfil its stated obligations.[4]
"The buzzword," the paper had adjudged, "should be transparency. There can't be a better start to the new-look board than resolve that everything we do from here on will be transparent and in the game's and public interest, be it election or allotting television rights or the team selection."[3] According to Shankar, however,
Except for a few influential BCCI officials and television executives, nobody knows what transpired during the hectic negotiations that led to Nimbus bagging the home television rights in 2006, and Sony walking away with the rights to telecast the IPL. The selectors were gagged early last year, which put paid to what little "transparency" there was in team selection. And the less said about the recent elections the better: a day after the new office-bearers announced the country's first paid selection panel, one of the five new selectors had yet to be officially informed about his appointment.[4]
The BCCI is India's richest sporting body. The BCCI's constitution provides for annual elections at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) for all posts, with a bar on re-election of an incumbent president beyond two consecutive years, "provided that the General Body may in its discretion re-elect the same person as president for the third consecutive year". The President of the BCCI is Shashank Manohar (elected 29 September 2008). N. Srinivasan, who owns the IPL team Chennai Super Kings, is the secretary.
In 2005 the Supreme Court of India by mutual consent of the parties directed election of the Office Bearers under the supervision of former Election Commissioner, which was held on 29 November 2005.
In recent times the BCCI has been at odds with the ICC on Future Tours Program, it has formed unilateral arrangements to allow more series between India and Australia and England.
Recently the ICC and BCCI are at loggerheads over the WADA, "Whereabouts clause".[5]
Just like the English & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket Australia (CA) in the past, the BCCI has been known to use its power to influence the ICC's decisions over scheduling, player suspensions and ICC appointments. As India is by far the biggest market in terms of international cricket revenue, the BCCI's opinions tend to gain a large weighting within the ICC's decision making process, with other cricketing nations unwilling to oppose due the potential loss of financial benefits associated with Indian cricket. After the controversial 2007/08 Sydney test between Australia and India, the BCCI suggested to the ICC to withdraw controversial umpire Steve Bucknor (who has a history of making wrong decisions against India and made several mistakes in the test match, mostly at India's expense) for the rest of the tour, replacing him with New Zealand umpire Billy Bowden. Additionally, an immediate three-match ban imposed on Harbhajan Singh for alleged racial abuse was suspended and later lifted after the charges were proven to be false in an ICC disciplinary hearing, which was initiated only after the BCCI threatened to withdraw the Indian team from the tour unless the ban was rightfully lifted. The BCCI was accused by other cricketing nations of unfairly utilising its power to pressure the ICC into making concessions to them, whilst the ICC in turn was accused of being 'spineless'.
BCCI currently has the highest income of any national cricket board. Its revenue (not profit):
The global media rights for international cricket to be held in India between March 2010 and March 2014 were awarded to production house Nimbus for US$612 Million.[9] Official kit sponsorship rights for 5 years from 2010 to 2013 inclusive were awarded to Nike for US$43 Million.[10] While Air Sahara became the official Indian cricket team sponsor for a period of four years at a cost of US$70 Million.[11] The media rights for 25 neutral venue one-day matches to be played over the next 5 years were awarded to Zee Telefilms for US$219.15 Million.[12] Business Standard [13] reports that it will get another Rs 2,000 crore ($450 million) from the sale of other rights, including hotel, travel and ground sponsorship. Mr Lalit Modi was partly responsible for the transformation of the finances of BCCI when he took over as the Vice President in Dec 2005 under the stewardship of Mr Sharad Pawar.
The BCCI has recently established an inter-city cricket league, the Indian Premier League in limited-overs and Twenty20 format. It is structured along the lines of other professional leagues such as the English Premier League, except without the relegations and promotions system as there are only ten official teams as of now. The league has recruited several prominent overseas cricketers and will have separate TV, internet, mobile, merchandising, sponsorship and ground signage rights. The IPL founder and Creator Lalit Modi predicted that it would become the single largest revenue earning avenue for BCCI after its establishment.[14] On 12 September 2006 BCCI announced that it will spend $347 Million (Rs. 16 Billion) over the subsequent one year to upgrade the cricket stadiums around the country.[15][16]
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