World’s wealthiest cricket board now under RTI

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) renowned as one of the richest cricket boards in the world will now be under the Right to Information Act.  The Central Information Commission, on Monday (October 1), pronounced the judgment that the BCCI comes under the jurisdiction of the RTI Act.

The judgment to take a private organization under the RTI Act’s Jurisdiction is a historic one. Now the BCCI will have to answer the questions of people. Information Commissioner Shridhar Acharyulu gave this historic decision, explaining that the BCCI’s functioning comes in section 2 (h) of the Right to Information Act. Over the past few years, there was no restriction on the BCCI’s affairs.

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In addition to it, Information Commissioner Madabhushi Sridhar noted in the order, “The SC has also reaffirmed that the BCCI is the ‘approved’ national-level body holding virtually monopoly rights to organize cricketing events in the country”.

He ruled that the BCCI should be registered as an NSF (national sports federation) under the jurisdiction of RTI Act. The RTI Act should include the board alongside its associations if they satisfy the guidelines applicable to BCCI as examined in the Law Commission report. The commissioner instructed the president, secretary, and Committee of Administrators (CoA) to nominate officers as central public information officers, central assistant public information officers, and first appellate authorities as stated by the law. Sridhar also asked the BCCI to implement online and offline systems in order to collect applications for information relating to the RTI Act.

RTI activist Geeta Rani had asked the Ministry of Sports to submit some information regarding the BCCI. However, due to lack of satisfactory information from the Sports Ministry, She had gone to the Information Commission. Then this whole issue came in highlight.

The applicant had solicited to know the guidelines under which the BCCI was acting as a representative of the national team and in relation to selecting players to represent India.

Via the RTI application, she also questioned in relation to whether the players selected by the BCCI were representing India or for the board. Further, the applicant had asked how a private body can represent the country in international competitions and how the government is gaining from handing over rights and control to the BCCI to represent the country internationally.