Maha Bharat: Episode 41

BCCI – Public or Private Enterprise?

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The Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI), has an official sounding name, it conducts all International cricket matches in India, hosts the IPL, and even selects the Indian national cricket team, but have you ever wondered, is the BCCI a government body? or a private enterprise? and how do they have the money and more importantly, the right to select the team that represents our country?

On this episode, we try and understand the BCCI, how and why was it formed, what does it do, and more importantly, why is it in the middle of so much controversy?

Show Notes

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Links to clips used in this episode —

Full Transcript of Episode 41 –

[We hear a news channel discussion about IPL]

Doston, yet another season of the Indian Premier League, or the IPL, just got over. We Indians take our cricket very seriously–so seriously that the IPL was held even in the middle of a pandemic! 

Like we know, this time, the IPL was held in Dubai, with all safety precautions.    

Do you know who organises the IPL, and other cricket tournaments in India? Yes, it’s the Board of Cricket Control of India or BCCI, as most of you would have guessed. 

But have you ever wondered how they had so much money to conduct a tournament in the middle of a pandemic, when the country is going through an economic crisis?

Well, I’m sure you won’t be surprised when I say that the BCCI is the richest cricketing body in the world right now. But were they always really so rich? How did they get here?

For this, we need to know how the BCCI was formed and what their powers really are. How do they get to pick the Indian cricket team? And most importantly, we’ll also answer the very confusing question: Is the BCCI run by the government, or is it a private company? 

Come, let’s find out in today’s episode. 

The BCCI governs cricket in India. By this, I mean, they do a bunch of different things–they conduct cricket tournaments, select players and coaches for the Indian team and so on. And the main goal of the BCCI is to improve the quality and standard of cricket in India. 

Every important decision regarding Indian cricket is taken by the BCCI. From selection of players for teams, to choosing the coaches, organizing tournaments and finding sponsors for these tournaments—they do a lot of things! 

Similarly, each cricket playing country has its own cricketing board—-like Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board. 

And all these cricketing boards come under the International Cricket Council, or the ICC, which is the world governing body of cricket. 

And they’re the ones who organize the cricket world cup, and the T20 world cup. Right now, the ICC has 105 member nations. 

Yes, you heard that right. More than 100 countries are part of the ICC. That’s pretty big, right? But let me tell you one thing. Only 12 of these countries are full-time members of the ICC– those are Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe. And the rest of the countries–like the US, Brazil and Iran–are associate members of the ICC.

But what exactly is the difference between a full-time member and an associate member? Well, countries who are full-time members can send their teams to play official Test matches of the ICC. They are also automatically qualified to play one day international and T20 cricket. However, for countries who are associate members, ICC has organised Cricket World Cup League Two and Cricket World Cup Challenge League. Also, to enter the T20 World Cup, these teams have to first play qualifier matches. 

There’s also another important difference. Full-time members have full voting rights at ICC meetings–this means that they have a say in the decisions that ICC makes. But associate members don’t have any such rights. 

Okay, that’s enough about the ICC. Let’s come back to the BCCI now. 

When and how was the BCCI formed? For this, it’s important to learn how Indians started playing cricket. 

Okay, time for a history lesson. 

As you might already know, the game of cricket originated in England. And cricket came to India along with the British. The first reference (zikr) to cricket being played in India dates all the way back to 1721. 

So, as the story goes, a British sailor named Clement Downing was in Khambat, near the Kutch coast in Western India.

This was the time when lots of merchants from England and France would sail to India for trade. And they would live in small settlements near the coast. 

So, Downing used to write down his experiences of living in India. “We everyday diverted ourselves with playing cricket and other exercises,” he wrote in his book ‘A History of Indian Wars’. 

He also wrote that the first cricket match in India was played between sailors like him in 1721 in Khambhat.  

The Indians who lived near these areas used to be so curious about the lifestyle and habits of these foreign traders. 

[We hear an excerpt from the movie Lagaan]

Remember the film Lagaan? Haan, kuch usi tarah, slowly, even Indians started playing cricket like the Britishers. 

And in 1792, the Calcutta Cricket Club was formed. This was the first cricket club in India. But this was formed by the British.   

So, what about cricket clubs for Indians? 

The Parsi community formed the first ever cricket club for Indians in 1848—the Oriental Cricket Club in Mumbai. This club existed just for two years; we don’t know much about it. But later, the community formed the Young Zoroastrians (ज़ोरास्ट्रियनस) Club in 1850. 

They were followed by the Hindu Gymkhana in 1866. And slowly, clubs started coming up in other cities too. 

And in 1911, an all-India cricket team even toured England—the first ever foreign tour by an Indian team. And the captain of this team was Bhupinder Singh—who was the Maharaja of Patiala at the time!

The Maharaja of Patiala was not just a good cricketer. He also helped train junior cricketers in Patiala, and even built a cricket ground in Chail (चैल), near Shimla. This cricket ground is still known as the world’s highest-altitude cricket ground.

But cricket was not as big a deal in India those days. In fact, in the years before independence, there was even a people’s movement to boycott cricket, because it was a British game. Some student protesters even called it “a slow poison given to the rising Indian generation and blockading the path to independence.” (bharatiyon ko dheere-dheere diya gaya ek zeher, jo azaadi mein rukavat la rahi thi)

Sounds funny, right? 

But yes, wherever the British went, they took cricket with them. That’s how the game became popular in countries like Sri Lanka, West Indies, South Africa and India—which used to be British colonies.

But who were the major powers in cricket back then? One was of course England, the second country was Australia, because the formal laws of cricket were made by Australia’s Marylebone (मारीलबोन) Cricket Club ya MCC. 

So, representatives from Australia, England and South Africa came together in 1909 to form the Imperial Cricket Conference, or the ICC. 

By the way, the Imperial Cricket Conference has had many name changes over the years. And was renamed to the International Cricket Conference in 1965. And in 1989, it was renamed again–to International Cricket Council, which is what we know the ICC as.

But wait, let’s go back to 1909, when the ICC was just formed.   

The ICC soon became the main body of the cricketing world. Back then, only commonwealth nations could join the ICC. And at that time, the Commonwealth was a group of former territories of the British empire. And India was not a commonwealth country yet. 

Anyway, the ICC had one representative from each member country.

In 1926, the ICC invited India to join them. But back then, there was no cricket association representing the whole of India. We just had several regional cricket clubs. So, members of the Calcutta Cricket Club—who were British—attended the meeting. 

The next year, Maharaja Bhupinder Singh called for a meeting of all the regional cricket clubs. So there were representatives from Sind, Punjab, Alwar, Rajputana, Baroda, Madras and many other clubs. 

Grant Govan and Anthony De Mello —two Britishers—were also part of the meeting. Here, all delegates came to a consensus that they will work towards forming a ‘Board of Cricket Control’ in India. 

They met again in December 1927 at the Bombay Gymkhana, and formed a temporary cricket association–called the Provisional Board of Control–to represent cricket in India.

Anyway, the following year, Govan and De Mello–who were part of the first meeting in 1927–met members of the ICC. They discussed the state of Indian cricket with the ICC members. There were six cricket associations in India at the time–Southern Punjab Cricket Association, Cricket Association of Bengal, Assam Cricket Association, Madras Cricket Association and Northern India Cricket Association. 

Anyway, the provisional board met again after that. And finally, after much discussion, the BCCI was formed in December 1928.  

Govan went on to become the first BCCI President, and De Mello the first Secretary.

Okay, that was a lot of history. Now, let’s come back to the question we started with: Is BCCI a government body or a private company? 

Actually, it is neither.

The BCCI was established as a public trust. It’s registered as a charitable organization, under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act.

Sounds strange, right? We all know that the BCCI is a really wealthy organization. I’m sure you did not think of it as a charitable organization!

But remember why the BCCI was born? Back then, Indian cricket was struggling. And the main aim of the BCCI was to uplift the small, regional cricket clubs. So it made sense for it to start as a charitable organisation. 

Who knew they would become a super power some decades later?

Well, being registered as a charitable organization comes with its own advantages: yes, I’m talking about tax cuts. Such organizations get a lot of tax exemptions, compared to other private firms.

But the BCCI couldn’t go on that way for too long. Ever since the IPL started in 2008, it was quite clear that they had lots of money! 

The income tax department was quick to take note of this. They pointed out that the BCCI can no longer be considered a charitable organisation. 

Especially because they were involved in the commercial marketing of the IPL-—matlab since they were marketing the tournament and making money out of it. The tax department asked them to also pay up their taxes. 

And the BCCI, in turn, kept saying that it is a charitable organisation. In fact, in 2014, then BCCI president N.Srinivasan even said that BCCI is a non-profit organization.

Well, this is a debate that’s still going on. But I can tell you one thing for sure. The BCCI’s revenue has only been going up over the years. For example, they earned ₹4,000 crore from IPL 2020! 

By now, you must have got an idea that the BCCI is not run by the government. It is not even dependent on the government for funds.    

But can the BCCI really function completely independent from the government? What exactly is the role of the government in the BCCI?

Okay, let me try and explain this. 

The BCCI is a federation which selects cricket players who represent India in international cricket matches. Doesn’t it need to be recognised by the government at least to be able to do this?

Well, you’ll be surprised to know that the BCCI was not even recognised by the government until very recently. 

But before we get to know more about that, let’s see how sports is governed in India.

The Ministry for Sports and Youth Affairs is the supreme body that governs sports in our country. But from hockey to table tennis to kabaddi and kho kho–there are so many sports that are played in the country, right?  

And naturally, it’s hard for the government to look into each and every sport, right? But this doesn’t mean there should be no government regulation–that would lead to a lot of chaos.  

So, the government has framed some rules for this, called the National Sports Development Code, 2011. By following these rules, different regional bodies of a particular sport can come together and form an NSF. Also, there can only be one NSF for a particular sport.

And once an NSF is formed, it can even apply for government funding. 

Okay, let’s come back to the BCCI now. You’ll be surprised when I tell you this: the BCCI became a national sports federation only in 2019. 

But what about all those years before it became an NSF? 

The BCCI has been governing India’s national cricket team even before it became an NSF, right? Well, that’s actually illegal.

According to the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, it is illegal for the BCCI to use the word “India” in its name, if it’s not recognised by the government of India. Not just that, legally, the BCCI cannot even have a team called “India”, since the name implies patronage (संरक्षण ya approval) from the government of India. 

So, for a few years, the government was after the BCCI to get itself recognised. And the government had its own reasons for this. 

One of the most important reasons was the widespread corruption in the BCCI. The government felt that the BCCI should be held accountable for its actions.      

[We hear a news report about the arrest of former BCCI president]

This was in 2014, when some players and officials–including the former president of the BCCI N Srinivasan–were arrested for illegal betting. 

Things got so bad that the Supreme Court had to interfere in this case. The BCCI clearly needed to be reformed. So, for this, the Supreme Court set up the Lodha Committee in 2015. 

This committee suggested a lot of changes. They recommended that betting should be legalised, separate governing bodies for the BCCI and the IPL. 

There was also another important thing that they recommended—that the BCCI should come under the RTI Act, or Right To Information Act. The ruling government, too, was pushing for this.   

[We hear the opinion of the Sports Minister on BCCI]

So, that’s what our then Union sports minister said in 2015. But what does this mean? If the BCCI comes under the RTI Act, any citizen of India can ask for any information from the BCCI. And the BCCI has to reply within 30 days! So, the BCCI will become accountable to the people of India. And this may help reduce corruption within BCCI. 

It is only in 2018 that the BCCI came under the RTI Act. But what took so long? 

Well, here’s the thing. Only public authorities come under the RTI Act. And like we know now, BCCI was not recognised by the government for the longest time. 

And yes, the BCCI came under the RTI Act even before it officially became an NSF.  

Are you wondering how the BCCI finally became a national sports federation then? 

[We hear a news report about the ban on Prithvi Shaw]

Like you heard, cricketer Prithvi Shaw was pulled up for consuming a prohibited substance in July 2019. 

So, according to the government, it is the duty of the NSFs to make sure that all athletes are dope free. The testing is done by the National Anti-Doping Agency, or NADA. 

Back in July 2019, the BCCI was not an NSF. And the BCCI conducted its own doping tests. But after the Prithvi Shaw incident, the government really tightened its grip on the BCCI. They wanted the cricketing body to follow the NADA anti-doping rules. 

So, what did they do? 

The Sports Ministry said that they will not let foreign teams enter India if the BCCI is not open to NADA testing. The South African team was supposed to visit India a month later, but the sports ministry put their visa process on hold. 

This time, the BCCI was left with no choice. They had to comply with government norms. 

[We hear a news report about BCCI’s compliance to government rules]

Finally, in August 2019, BCCI agreed to the NADA rules and became a national sports federation. 

Just think about it! The BCCI was once a small cricketing body which was formed to help struggling Indian cricketers. But over the years, it went on to become the world’s richest cricketing body. It is a private entity, and it’s recognised by the government. 

And most importantly, the BCCI is a body that is accountable to the people of India. 

So, that’s the story of the BCCI. I hope you learnt something interesting today. I’ll See you next week with another brand new episode of Maha Bharat!

———-

Credits

Narrated by – Dhruv Rathee
Producer – Gaurav Vaz
Written by – Medha V and Gaurav Vaz
Title Track Design – Abhijith Nath
Audio Production – Madhav Ayachit