The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has found itself in the middle of many conflicts with various cricket boards around the world as a result of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The main point of contention was that signed players should always be available to their country for international tours, even if it overlaps with the IPL season. To address this, the BCCI officially requested that the International Cricket Council (ICC) to institute a time period in the International Future Tours Program, solely for the IPL season. This request was not granted at a subsequent meeting held by the ICC.[1]
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Because the inaugural IPL season coincided with the County Championship season as well as New Zealand's tour of England, the ECB and county cricket clubs raised their concerns to the BCCI over players. The ECB made it abundantly clear that they would not sign No Objection Certificates for players—a prerequisite for playing in the IPL. Chairmen of the county clubs also made it clear that players contracted to them were required to fulfill their commitment to their county. As a result of this, Dimitri Mascarenhas was the only English player to have signed with the IPL for the 2008 season.[2]
A result of the ECB's concerns about players joining the IPL, was a proposed radical response of creating their own Twenty20 tournament that would be similar in structure to the IPL. The league — titled the Twenty20 English Premier League — would feature 21 teams in three groups of seven and would occur towards the end of the summer season.[3] The ECB enlisted the aid of Texas billionaire Allen Stanford to launch the proposed league.[4] Stanford was the brains behind the successful Stanford 20/20, a tournament that has run twice in the West Indies. On 17 February 2009, when news of the fraud investigation against Stanford became public, the ECB and WICB withdrew from talks with Stanford on sponsorship.[5][6] On February 20 the ECB announced it has severed its ties with Stanford and cancelled all contracts with him.[7]
The BCCI also experienced run-ins with Cricket Australia (CA) over player availability for Australia's 2008 tour of the West Indies and CA's desire for global protection of their sponsors. CA had feared that sponsors of the IPL (and its teams) that directly competed with their sponsors would jeopardize already existing arrangements. This issue was eventually resolved[8] and it was also agreed upon that Australian players would be fully available for the West Indies tour.
Initially the IPL enforced strict guidelines to media covering matches, consistent with their desire to use the same model sports leagues in North America use in regards to media coverage. Notable guidelines imposed included the restriction to use images taken during the event unless purchased from cricket.com, owned by Live Current Media Inc (who won the rights to such images) and the prohibition of live coverage from the cricket grounds. Media agencies also had to agree to upload all images taken at IPL matches to the official website. This was deemed unacceptable by print media around the world. Upon the threat of boycott, the IPL eased up on several of the restrictions.[9] On 15 April 2008 a revised set of guidelines offering major concessions to the print media and agencies was issued by the IPL and accepted by the Indian Newspaper Society.[10]
As per IPL rules, the winner of the previous competition decides the venue for the finals.[11] In 2009, the reigning Champions, Deccan Chargers chose the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.[11] However, a dispute regarding use of the pavilion meant that no IPL matches could be held there. The members of the Cricket Club of India that owns the stadium have the sole right to the pavilion on match days, whereas the IPL required the pavilion for its sponsors.[12] The members were offered free seats in the stands, however the club rejected the offer, stating that members could not be moved out of the pavilion.[11][13][14]
On 25 April 2010, the BCCI suspended Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, for "alleged acts of individual misdemeanours". The suspension notice was served on him by Rajeev Shukla, BCCI vice-president, and N Srinivasan, the board secretary, sending an e-mail to the same effect. It followed a day of negotiations with interlocutors attempting to persuade Modi to resign but pre-empted a potentially flashpoint at a scheduled IPL governing council meeting, which Modi had said he would attend. Modi was officially barred from participating in the affairs of the Board, the IPL and any other committee of the BCCI.[15]
Chirayu Amin, an industrialist and head of the Baroda Cricket Association, was named interim chairman of the IPL by the BCCI, following Lalit Modi's suspension.[16] According to BCCI, many important documents were missing from the IPL and BCCI offices. "Many of the records are missing. The IT is asking for documents. We don't have them. We have asked BCCI CAO Prof Ratnakar Shetty to look into the missing records and papers," said BCCI President Shashank Manohar.[17]
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