· No BCCI office-bearer can be Minister or government servant
· A steering committee headed by former Home Secretary G K Pillai with MohinderAmarnath, Diana Eduljee and Anil Kumble
· Separate governing bodies for the BCCI and the Indian Premier League (IPL), with certain level of autonomy provided to the IPL body
· Relegation of Railways, Services and Universities as Associate members. They also lose voting rights.
· In no case, President will hold post for more than 2 years
· BCCI to come under RTI Act
All these recommendations have come handy in dealing with certain issues but this has set a proverbial cat among the pigeons. For instance, the committee calls for players to be represented on the BCCI Working Committee and that the players association should be funded by the BCCI. This would be a very unwise move. Granting the cricketers this sort of power could backfire as the West Indies cricket board learnt to its eternal loss when their players controversially withdrew from the tour of India recently. A similar strike by Indian players could seriously wreck the very fabric of Indian cricket. Coming down on over-representation by some states, Maharashtra (4 votes) Gujarat (3 votes), has led to backfiring from state associations as it could be grossly unfair if Mumbai, a city that has done more for Indian cricket than all the other units put together, is affected by less finances or denial of vote. Some recommendations also seem at odds. Take the perceived conflict of interest held against N Srinivasan owing to his being the owner of Chennai Super Kings, a franchise, and also a BCCI office-bearer. His dual interest was considered a major conflict. But, in the recommendation for the body of the Governing Council to be comprised of two representatives from IPL franchises brings that conflict of interest into the picture again.
To conclude, BCCI has been dogged by many issues and reforms should be put in place before it is hailed as a role model for other sporting bodies and the recommendations and actions taken by the committee has set the ball rolling. Therefore, this restructuring pill is not bad or good but a necessity and that too a bitter one.
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About the Author:
Harshit Kalra,
PGP2016-18 Batch,
IIM Raipur
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