Will BCCI come under government purview?

In what can be termed as an interesting development, there is a good chance that the Indian government will be looking to pass a bill that will push the BCCI to within the purview of the government, and bring it under the RTI – the right to information bill.

The repercussions come with its own set of pros and cons. While, on the one hand, the bringing of the BCCI under the right to information act would allow it to become more transparent, something that most Indian fans would be happy about, what it could also do is to allow the government to manoeuvre it in their own way. This could lead to cricket, in the long run, going the way of the other sports in the country – hockey is almost extinct in India, soccer has taken eons to pick up despite being a sport that is watched and loved the world over, while there is no other Olympic team game to boast of. Even in individual sports like boxing, shooting, wrestling and athletics, the situation is grim, if not appalling.

What is surprising is that three of the very prominent former cricketers, Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja, are all of the opinion that the decision to bring the sport under the RTI Act would be the correct decision, as it would bring the transparency in the dealings of the board.

The Bill will be discussed in the Parliament and if it does gets a clearance it will be put up to vote during the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament.

Again, it is not only the BCCI, but also the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which has opposed this proposed bill, but the Kapil Dev has thrown its weight behind the government saying that the BCCI needed to toe the line if the Government decided to go ahead with brining it under their purview.

Azharuddin, who is himself an MP from Moradabad, also said that the board should not be considered different from the other sports and shouldn’t consider itself above the law.

Interestingly, the BCCI VP, Rajiv Shukla, who is also an MP in the Parliament, said that he had not seen the bill and that the BCCI would oppose any such bill from the government. He also added that given that the BCCI does not take any grant from the government, it should not come under the government’s purview.

The final word belonged to Jadeja though. He said, "Why should they (BCCI) worry. Government is not asking you to change the way you work or do not promote sport. They are not stopping you from doing anything. They are actually encouraging to do it in a more transparent way,"

Either Jadeja is to naive or he is only trying to be diplomatic here.