Does the Indian cricket team represent the country or BCCI?

BCCI President Shashank Manohar

There is something peculiar about the Board of Control for Cricket in India. No, it is not about the various scandals and allegations that have plagued the richest cricket board in the world hitherto. Nor is it about their avariciousness or their money-ravenousness. The peculiarity lies in the way the board is regulated and controlled.

To know whether the Indian cricket team represents the country or BCCI, one needs to appraise how BCCI operates and how it is regulated.

BCCI is not a sports federation

Unlike most sports bodies, BCCI does not fall under the control of the government or the Olympic Committee of its respective country. Since most cricket controlling bodies do not affiliate themselves with the Olympic Body of their respective countries, the non-affiliation with the Indian Olympic Association can be glossed over.

But how can a cricket controlling body that selects players who would represent the nation and represent its country in international conferences, not fall under the purview of the government?

BCCI is not a national sports body nor a sports federation that functions under the Union Sports Ministry. It is instead a charitable organization that has been registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act.

In 1926, two members of the Calcutta Cricket Club travelled to London to attend the meetings of the Imperial Cricket Conference, International Cricket Council’s antecedent. But they could not have been considered official representatives since they were not representing the whole of India, but thanks to Lord Harris, the chairman of the conference, they were given a provisional full member status.

India’s membership was to be confirmed, if a body that would represent the whole country takes control of cricket in India. Hence, BCCI was formed in 1928 and ICC recognized it as the official representative of India.

The legitimacy of BCCI

Before we delve deep into the legitimacy of BCCI, the legitimacy of the International Cricket council must be analyzed. The Marylebone Cricket Club holds the world copyright for the laws of cricket, hence can be considered as the official custodian of cricket.

Since, MCC has handed over all its power to the ICC, save for the power to amend laws, ICC is the legal administrator of world cricket. Hence it is ICC, which recognizes cricket governing bodies and leagues and thus, trademarks like “Test”, “ODI” and “T20” cannot be used nor can the laws of cricket be utilized without ICC’s permission.

It is worth mentioning that, when Kerry Packer set up the World Series Cricket, ICC refused to recognize them and hence Kerry Packer was forced to call Test matches Supertests. And laws and playing conditions for the break-away series had to be written by Richie Benaud, since the copyright for the laws lied with the MCC.

The teams that participated in the series could not be named by the country they represented, hence the suffix ‘XI’ was added.

Since ICC recognizes BCCI as the apex national federation responsible for promotion of cricket in India, the copyright for the moniker ‘India’ remains with BCCI, which makes it the only body that can field a team called India in cricket.

The status within India

At the same time, BCCI has no legal provision to use the word “India” in its name, nor does it stand the right to field a team called “India”, since the name implies patronage from the government of India.

As BCCI has continuously refused to identify itself as a public authority and since they are not officially recognized as a national sports federation, it is illegal to insinuate government patronage.

In short, BCCI is a private body, that officially represents India in ICC, without government recognition, which is illegal according to the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950, that states

“Notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force, no person shall, except in such cases and under such conditions as may be prescribed by the Central Government, use, or continue to use, for the purpose of any trade, business, calling or profession, or in the title of any patent, or in any trade mark or design, any name or emblem specified in the Schedule or any colourable imitation thereof without the previous permission of the Central Government or of such officer of Government as may be authorised in this behalf by the Central Government.”

If BCCI is banned

In the case of BCCI being banned by the International Cricket Council, the government of India or the Indian Olympic Association can formulate a governing body for cricket in India and seek recognition from the ICC.

It will be appropriate to mention that when the Indian Olympic Association banned the Indian Hockey Federation on grounds of corruption, Hockey India was set-up and was recognized as the official governing body of Hockey in India by the International Hockey Federation.

The government of India also reserves the right to terminate BCCI under certain circumstances, which would deny international participation of the Indian cricket team, until another governing body takes over control of cricket in India with the recognition of the ICC.

Very recently, South Africa Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee threatened to ban Cricket South Africa over the use of the national flag in its logo. Such a ban could have prohibited the international participation of South Africa.

The possibility of a parallel body

Even if no bans are placed on BCCI, the government of India still has the right to form a national sports federation to govern cricket and apply for recognition as the official representative of India. BCCI is aware of such a move and in fact, it has confessed that there is no law that prohibits the existence of another parallel body in India.

Such a phenomenon can be observed in the USA, where two bodies are rivaling each other to be the official governing body for cricket in the USA. The United States of America Cricket Association is a charitable organization, much like BCCI and has been controlling cricket in the USA since its inception.

The American Cricket Federation which was established in 2012 as rebel organization after dissonance over the board elections is now in contention to be the official representative of the USA.

To represent a nation, official recognition is needed from the government as well as from ICC. The Union Sports ministry of India can always usurp the position of BCCI by divesting BCCI of the ability to use the name of India and its emblem and hence, BCCI would not be able to field a team called India.

In that case, ICC will have no choice but to accept the governing body that the government recognizes. But this is not easy as it sounds, since BCCI is an opulent body both in cricket and in India.

Indian government’s unofficial recognition

“Though in the field of Cricket it enjoys a monopoly status the same is not conferred on the Board by any statute or by any order of the Government. It enjoys that monopoly status only by virtue of its first mover advantage and its continuance as the solitary player in the field of cricket control,” BCCI said in a writ petition.

However, despite BCCI not receive any funds from the government of India nor has it applied for recognition by the government. The Union of Sports Ministry once said on oath before the Supreme Court that “Board is a recognized National Federation”.

Nonetheless, in 2015, the Minister of Sports Sarbananda Sonowal stated that, BCCI is not a recognized sports federation and the sports ministry only grants clearance to host international matches in India and to participate in international events abroad at no cost to the government, subject to clearances by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of External Affairs.

So what can be inferred is the fact that the government of India is willing to allow BCCI to represent India in cricket and unofficially accepts BCCI as the “apex National Body for regulating the game of Cricket in India”, whereas the BCCI is not seeking government patronage.

The government’s acceptance of BCCI has led Indian cricketers to be the awardee of the Arjuna award and the government even accepts recommendations and nominations from BCCI for the award, a prerogative only the national sports federations are entitled to.

How BCCI exploits the conundrum

Being a charity organization, BCCI is entitled to tax exemptions- though it was reneged in 2008 BCCI has settled only 10% of the tax. The cash rich board also resists to come under the Right to Information Act and has been contesting various petitions before the Central Information Commission.

BCCI argues that it is not a public authority and hence does not need to come under the RTI Act. Not being a public body also allows BCCI to not be accountable and answerable to the government nor the public.

How can a body that bears the name of its country and that represents its country globally not be accountable to its government and people? If BCCI is not going to accept RTI, how can transparency be ensured? How could an organization that is not transparent be the official flag-bearer of its country in an international event?

BCCI functions arbitrarily and autonomously, so much so, that the Union Sports Ministry and the Indian Olympic Association had to beseech them to participate in the South Asian Games to be held in Guwahatti and Shillong.

The government of India imploring a private body to represent the country officially goes on to show both the autonomy of BCCI and the Indian government’s powerlessness over its representation in cricket.

The government of India, as aforesaid, could construct a national sports federation and represent India in cricket in the South Asian Games since cricket matches in the South Asian Games are not officially sanctioned by ICC, but that would come at the risk of ICC disowning cricket in the South Asian Games and opposing the use of cricket laws, the copyright of which lies with the MCC.

In 2010, BCCI refused to be the lead partner of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi by donating 100 crores and refused to send a team to represent India in cricket during the Asian Games in both 2010 and 2014. They have also defied to accept the World Anti-Doping code.

Conclusion

To make the long story short, BCCI has been enjoying the perks of a national sports federation, without accepting the responsibilities of it. It is garnering the benefits of both a charity organization and a national sports federation sans accountability and official status.

A body that represents its country in the world stage, should never have the independency BCCI has. Such autonomy can bring in disrepute and disgrace to the country as a whole, which BCCI has done in many an occasion.

But if the government is not ready to take action against them or at least is not capable of bringing it under the control of the sports ministry, even though the law allows the government to disallow BCCI from officially representing India, there is no way India can control how it is represented by BCCI globally.

Technically, the Indian Cricket team represents only the BCCI, since the government of India has not formally recognized its official status. But empirically, the Indian team represents the whole of India, since the Indian government is ready to accept it without complaint.

But in reality the Indian team is a franchise in world cricket owned by a private capitalistic body called BCCI and hence, cannot be termed a national team. But the fandom will have to accept team India as the official team, since it is the solitary team in the field of cricket representing India.