Board of Control for Cricket in India

Board of Control for Cricket in India
भारतीय क्रिकेट नियंत्रण बोर्ड
BCCI
Sport Cricket
Jurisdiction  India
Founded 1928
Affiliation International Cricket Council
Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
President Jagmohan Dalmiya
Sponsor STAR India
Official website
www.bcci.tv
India

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), headquartered at Mumbai in West Indian state of Maharashtra is the national governing body for all cricket 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". 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.


Logo

The BCCI logo is derived from the emblem of the Order of the Star of India, the Indian national emblem during the colonial period.

History

In 1912, an all-India cricket team visited England for the first time, sponsored and captained by the Maharaja of Patiala, and featured the best cricketers of the time from India. In 1926, two representatives of the Calcutta Cricket Club traveled to London to attend a couple of meetings of the Imperial Cricket Conference, the 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. The 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 21 November 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 10 December 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.[1]

Domestic cricket

The BCCI organises the following domestic cricket competitions in this order :

Controversies

Office bearers

The BCCI is India's richest sporting body and the richest cricket board in the world.[2] 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 incumbent President of the BCCI is Mr. Dalmiya as temporary President replacing Mr. N. Srinivasan,[3] who owns the IPL team Chennai Super Kings until the commission appointed to conduct an inquiry into the betting and spot-fixing charges in IPL 2013 completes its task. During this period Jagmohan Dalmiya, a former BCCI president and current head of the Cricket Association of Bengal, will run the daily affairs of the board.[4] 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. Shivlal Yadav is presently interim President of BCCI.

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'."[5] 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 fulfill its stated obligations.[6]

"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."[5] 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 purchasing 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.[6]

Conflict with ICC

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.

In 2009, ICC and BCCI were in disagreement over the WADA, "Whereabouts clause".[7]

The BCCI has been known to use its power to influence certain ICC decisions. These included scheduling, player suspension and ICC appointments. As India is a large market in terms of international cricket revenue, the BCCI's opinions carry weight within the ICC's decision making process. The ECB, Cricket Australia and the BCCI are regarded as cricket's "Big Three" economic players. After the controversial 2007/08 Sydney test between Australia and India, the BCCI suggested to the ICC to withdraw umpire Steve Bucknor for the rest of the tour, replacing him with favorable New Zealand umpire Billy Bowden. Additionally, an immediate three-match ban imposed on Harbhajan Singh for racial abuse was suspended and later lifted after the charges were proven to be false in an ICC disciplinary hearing. The hearing was initiated only after the BCCI threatened to withdraw the Indian team from the tour unless the ban was lifted. The BCCI was accused by other cricketing nations of unfairly utilizing its power to pressure the ICC into making concessions for them, whilst the ICC in turn was accused of being 'spine-less'.[8]

BCCI is currently in a cold war situation with ICC over the use of Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS). It is totally against the use of UDRS in ICC events.[9]

Status as a charitable organization

BCCI had avoided taxes on its income, claiming exemption as a charitable organization.[10] Although the Income Tax Department withdrew this exemption in 2007-08, BCCI only paid tax amounting to INR419 million (US$6.7 million) against its tax liability of INR4.13 billion (US$66 million) in the 2009-10 financial year[11]

Finances

BCCI does not depend on the Government for its finances.[12] It is not required for BCCI to make its balance sheets public. The global media rights for international cricket to be held in India were awarded to Rupert Murdoch-led production house Star Group for Rs 3,851 crore for six years.[13] Official kit sponsorship rights for 5 years from 2010 to 2013 inclusive were awarded to Nike for US$43 Million.[14] While Air Sahara became the official Indian cricket team sponsor for a period of four years at a cost of US$70 Million.[15] 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.[16] Business Standard[17] reports that it will get another Rs 20 billion ($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 eight 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.[18] 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.[19][20]

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ↑ Dass, Jarmani (1969). Maharaja; lives and loves and intrigues of Indian princes: Volume 56 of Orient paperbacks. Allied Publishers. p. 342.Page 44
  2. ↑ "Mahendra wins a bitter battle". The Hindu. 30 September 2004. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  3. ↑ http://www.bcci.tv/bcci/bccitv/index/office
  4. ↑ "Srinivasan steps aside temporarily; Dalmiya to run BCCI affairs". ESPN. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 BCCI 2005, p. 1.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Shankar 2008.
  7. ↑ "Front Page : BCCI opposes doping clause". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 3 August 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  8. ↑ "Front Page : Harbhajan in three-Test ban for racist remark". The Guardian. 7 January 2008. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  9. ↑ "Front Page : Former Indian cricketers slam BCCI's non-acceptance of Decision Review System". sportskeeda. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  10. ↑ Joshi, Sandeep (19 February 2012). "BCCI not a ‘charitable organisation’". The Hindu. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  11. ↑ "BCCI owes Rs.373 crore to Income Tax dept". The New Indian Express. 20 February 2012. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  12. ↑ "Decline in BCCI income during 2008-09s".
  13. ↑ "Nimbus bags cricket rights for $612 m — BCCI sale and sponsorship earnings total Rs 3,354 crore". The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  14. ↑ "Front Page News : Wednesday, July 28, 2010". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 24 December 2005. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  15. ↑ "Air Sahara wins cricket team sponsorship — To shell out Rs 313.80 cr for 4-year period". The Hindu Business Line. 20 December 2005. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  16. ↑ "Zee wins 'neutral venue' media rights for $ 219.15 million". Indiantelevision.com. 6 April 2006. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  17. ↑
  18. ↑
  19. ↑ "BCCI to invest $347 million on domestic facilities | Cricket News | Global | Cricinfo.com". Content-usa.cricinfo.com. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  20. ↑
  21. ↑ "Miles to go before they sleep | Specials | Cricinfo Magazine | Cricinfo.com". Content-www.cricinfo.com. Retrieved 28 July 2010.

External links

Sources