The Board of Control for Cricket in India, as the name suggests, controls all cricketing activities in India. Further, the ICC has recognised it as such in India. It runs cricket in India, conducts elections, decides which of the affiliated state or regional organisations can vote in the elections they conduct, chooses who the selectors are, and puts together a team of players who represent the Indian nation. The Supreme Court of India has recently put some spokes in their wheels and has told them how such a business has to be run. The recommendations are being implemented slowly and with much reluctance.

To understand the state of affairs, we must first appreciate the fact that this entity is a ‘society’, ‘a private club consortium’ registered under the Societies Registration Act of the state of Tamil Nadu. That kind of a registration classifies the body as a social service organisation that has the promotion of the game of cricket at its sole concern. Therefore, one of the richest sports bodies in the world and certainly the richest by far in the cricketing world is exempt from most of the rules governing any other sports bodies in India.

As a charitable organisation, they are exempt from income taxes that have to be paid to the government. They have come under that obligation only after the launching of the IPL in 2008 when perforce they had to promote private companies and grant television rights and the exemption has been withdrawn. As all organisations associated with the government are, they do not come under the RTI (Right to Information) Act. Well, they do not take any grants from the government and are therefore not answerable to the fans and the public at large.

It is therefore not difficult to understand why the BCCI is not too concerned with what the ICC, the body that governs cricket and national cricket associations around the world, thinks and wants. For one, it is the BCCI that contributes the largest amount of money to the ICC kitty in the name of promoting cricket around the world. The fact is that if the BCCI decides to sneeze, the ICC will catch a very bad cold. National cricketing bodies around the world are also aware of the revenues that are generated with one tour of the Indian cricket team.

The BCCI has had a problem with implementing the DRS (Decision Review System). One of the reasons cited for that is the lack of funds to effectively implement the system in India. While the ICC, with the backing of more than a hundred nations, is trying its level best to have the T20 version of cricket included in the Olympic Games, the BCCI is holding out. The real reason for this impasse is that the BCCI will have to align with the IOA (Indian Olympic Association).

The IOA is run with government funding and it will, therefore, mean government interference in the BCCI. Furthermore, the entire organisation will come under the ambit of the World Anti-Doping Agency, an agency formed by the IOC to check the usage of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes. The organisation that runs Indian cricket is averse to that! The body that governs everything about cricket in India is reluctant to be governed itself.

That is why a nation brimming with cricketing talent will find it difficult to retain their position at the top, no matter what version of cricket they play. The BCCI has other things on their minds and that is to maintain their immunity from being governed. Moreover, they have to make sure that make sure that long-term contracts are signed with the sponsors and the channels that fall over each other for the broadcasting rights.

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