Union Sports Minister Ajay Maken fired a fresh salvo at the BCCI by saying that the government would decide the fate of the Sports Bill and not the BCCI. He also reiterated his objective of bringing the board and other sports federations under the purview of the Right to Information Act.

"What I am trying to say is that for the last so many years, whether it is the IPL or the functioning of other cricketing federation, it has been questioned by various agencies, even the Enforcement Directorate. If the Sports Bill had been in place, that will not happen. One, it will bring transparency in the functioning of the sports federations and it will give players more rights to run these federations," said Maken.

The BCCI recently said that until and unless its reservations were addressed by the sports ministry, the bill would not be acceptable even in its revised form. Maken said transparency in the working of the federations could be achieved only by bringing them under the RTI Act. He said the allegations of tax violation in running of the Indian Premier League should be looked into and asked the BCCI to come under the ambit of the Right to Information Act (RTI) for its own good.

"As far as resistance to the RTI is concerned, maybe they have something to hide. And resistance to age and tenure rules is because many of them are scared that they will lose their jobs to younger people. Involvement of sportspersons in these Federations would mean that they will lose control over these bodies they run like private clubs at present," Maken told this newspaper.

Bollywood superstar and Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Shah Rukh Khan was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the holding of IPL II and Maken said such things, if found true, should not have happened.

"These things should not have happened and the government should look into this and the Enforcement Directorate and other agencies are doing that in IPL and related things," Maken said. "It's the public money it (Cricket Board) is getting and private companies should not benefit out of that. It's the money of fans and sports lovers and should be used transparently," he said.

There have been allegations of ill-gotten money flowing into the IPL from foreign tax havens.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA), meanwhile, lashed out at Maken for saying that he had no faith in it when it comes to handling huge amounts of money, with the body's acting-president Vijay Kumar Malhotra demanding a withdrawal of the statement.

Accusing the minister for playing a double game, the IOA warned him that these cheap tactics were going to boomerang on him sooner than later. "Exuberance does not mean that one should cross limits of decency. One has to temper his language," IOA acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra said in a statement here.

BCCI have all rights to object Indian Government from controlling them and at same time they are subjected to accept a move under RTI. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is a private body and it by no means can be called as Indian sports body. So, that means so far Sachin, Dravid, Dhoni and all other players represented BCCI team not Indian team? Answer is straight yes. 

From the beginning, BCCI is not under the control of Indian government any time and it is evolved to the current state through some brilliant planning and execution by its members.  Still BCCI hasn’t doing all this alone as it received many indirect help from Indian government in the forms of tax exceptions, stadium availability, security providing, travelling arrangements, etc.,

As a private body, BCCI is not entitled to anyone not even to the public of India when it comes to their rules and procedures being followed. BCCI is like an organization run on his own with players at lower level and management at top level. Just like in any cricket field, peoples are mere spectators here. BCCI form their own rules, discuss between them and approve among them about what to be followed and how it to be done. BCCI doesn’t need to explain anything such as on what grounds selection for the post of BCCI post is done, how finance management is done, how broadcastings rights are approved, procedures and routines that are been followed, decisions about sacking coaching staff or removing member of BCCI, amount sent to each state associations, etc., to anyone not even to the Government of India.

Now if BCCI comes under RTI i.e. Right to Information Act, then they are entitled to both the people of India and Government of India. BCCI has to submit the audits details to government on yearly basis and also publish it so that all the peoples of India can read it. BCCI must release all the details like for example players contract details, criteria’s on what basis team is selected and list of players the who are considered for the selection, the exact amount for which broadcasting rights are sold and to whom, IPL auction details and salary given by each IPL team to players, etc., In short, BCCI actions will be transparent. Not only the members of BCCI, all the peoples and government of India will know all the details. The election for BCCI posts need to be recorded which can be telecasted live and documented too which needs to be released.

Hereafter as a citizen of India I can come to know how the players are selected, cash income and expenditure, contract details between IPL teams & BCCI and IPL teams & players, complete details of coach reports after each tour/series, minutes of each BCCI meetings and everything as a stakeholder I need to know, will be made to know. This move will make the people of India as stakeholders rather than just spectators. This will put the end for a question whether players representing country or BCCI.

The new Sports Bill not only wants BCCI to come under RTI but all other 44 sports bodies which are already under the government too. BCCI can negotiate on how much control government can have on them because they earned the current status. Government doesn’t do anything to telecast the 83 world cup final and also refused to provide any reward after India won it. BCCI gave rewards to players by raising money through organizing functions helped by Lata Mangeskar who sung for nothing in return. All this years, BCCI developed the game so much without any direct help from government and they deserve to continue in that way without anyone controlling from the top but in transparent manner.

In an era of utmost openness and transparency where even the deeds of judiciary is demanded to be under the public eye, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), termed just a private club consortium, is fighting tooth and nail to prevent bringing it under the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act.

BCCI as well as most other sporting federations in India are relieved as the cabinet rejected the National Sports Development Bill. Aiming transparency and efficiency in running the sports federations in India, the bill was drafted after the gross corruption scandals broke out during the Commonwealth Games last year. 

However, the sports control bill presented by Sports Minister Ajay Maken was rejected by the cabinet and asked the minister to redraft the bill before it will be put before parliament. The cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reportedly was not unanimous on many of its provisions and media reports quotes the PM as saying "The bill is good intentioned, but needs to be reworked to address objections."