BCCI Brought Under Right To Information Act, Now It Is Answerable To Money-Related Queries

The worst fears of an Indian cricket selector are about to come true. BCCI has been brought under the ambit of the Right To Information Act and faces the direct prospect of being answerable to the country and its public in the near future.

The Central Information Commission (CIC) ¡ª the top appellate body in all matters related to this 2005 Act of the Parliament of India ¡ª has directed the BCCI to be brought under the RTI Act and put in place, within two weeks starting Tuesday, online and offline mechanisms to receive applications for information under the RTI Act.

Will a selection committee meeting now be public info?

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¡°The BCCI should be listed as a National Sports Federation (NSF) covered under the RTI Act. The RTI Act should be made applicable to the BCCI along with its entire constituent member cricketing associations, provided they fulfil the criteria applicable to the BCCI, as discussed in the Law Commission's report,¡± CIC commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said.

Those who oversee the day-today functioning of the BCCI say they are least bit surprised with the development. ¡°But there are massive pitfalls associated with this too. All hell will break loose if details of selection committee meetings are now made available to the public. Who will want to speak his mind then? Every decision taken inside a selection committee meeting will become a matter of national debate, leading to tamasha on prime time television news,¡± said a senior BCCI member.

Recently, the national women¡¯s team coach was sacked by the BCCI because he ¡ª sources say ¡ª was asked to jot down details of team meetings and the cricketers rejected the idea the moment it was proposed.

¡°Now, where will the RTI Act limit itself to? Of course, the growing amount of conflict in cricket ensures that there needs to be some kind of checks in place. But at the same time, the age old question remains: ¡®how does one determine conflict?¡¯¡± say board members.

The BCCI itself is divided on this matter. There are those who want the RTI to come into effect so that some serious issues troubling Indian cricket are made public. The National Cricket Academy (NCA), for instance, says a member, ¡°is one such hogwash¡± and needs to be brought to public notice.

The CIC says it has gone through the law, the Supreme Court order in the matter involving the BCCI, the report submitted by the Law Commission in this regard and the submissions made by the Central Public Information officer. In this regard, the CIC concludes: ¡°The status, nature and functional characteristics of the BCCI fulfill required conditions of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act¡±.

Acharyulu came out with a 37-page order on Monday saying that the apex court itself has reaffirmed that the BCCI is an ¡®approved' national-level body holding virtually monopoly rights to organize cricketing events in the country. The matter had first come before the CIC when a RTI applicant submitted that the sports ministry had not given any adequate response to an application seeking to know the provisions and guidelines under which the BCCI has been representing India and selecting players for the country.