The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the principal national governing body of the sport of cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at the Cricket Centre in Churchgate, Mumbai. BCCI is the wealthiest governing body of cricket in the world. It has a revenue of more than .
It nurtures talent through grassroots programs and cricket academies. Its initiatives include coaching, infrastructure development, and player welfare programs designed to maintain and enhance India's competitive performance internationally.
BCCI was established on 1 December 1928 in Madras under Act XXI of 1860 of Madras and was subsequently re-registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975. It is a consortium of state cricket associations that select their representatives who elect the BCCI president. It joined the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1926 which later became the International Cricket Council. The BCCI is an autonomous, private organization that does not fall under the purview of the Government of India and does not receive any grants from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The BCCI is influential in international cricket. The International Cricket Council shares the largest part of its revenue with the BCCI. Organized by the BCCI, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is one of the wealthiest sports leagues in the world.
In financial year 2023–2024, BCCI earned . BCCI paid in taxes for the financial year 2022–23.
R. E. Grant Govan was the first BCCI president and Anthony De Mello was its first secretary.
BCCI has hosted multiple Cricket World Cups, It will also host the 2029 Champions Trophy and the 2031 Cricket World Cup.
The BCCI manages four squads that represent India in international cricket; the men's national cricket team, the women's national cricket team, the men's national under-19 cricket team and the women's national under-19 cricket team. It also governs the developmental squads; the India A team, the India B team and the India A women's team. Its national selection committee, which is led by the chief national selector, selects players for these teams. As part of its duties, the BCCI organizes and schedules matches to be played by each of these teams and schedules, sanctions and organizes domestic cricket in India.
History
The first game of cricket was played in India by European sailors, who played the sport as a recreational activity in the first half of the 18th century. These sailors played cricket near their coastal settlements. The first recorded match in India was played between the British army and British settlers in 1751. The world's second-oldest cricket club, Calcutta Cricket Club, was founded in 1792 in present-day Kolkata. The Parsis were the first civilian community to accept cricket as a sport and play it in India. In 1848, they set up the Oriental Cricket Club in present-day Mumbai. In 1850, they founded the Young Zoroastrian Cricket Club. In 1886, Hindus founded the Hindu Gymkhana sports club.
In 1912, an all-India cricket team visited England for the first time, and were sponsored and captained by the Maharaja of Patiala. In 1926, two representatives of Calcutta Cricket Club traveled to London to attend meetings of the Imperial Cricket Conference, the predecessor of the current International Cricket Council.
Although technically not an official representative of Indian cricket, they were allowed to attend by Lord Harris, chairman of the conference. The outcome of the meeting was the MCC's decision to send a team that was led by Arthur Gilligan, who had captained England in The Ashes, to India.
Founding and early years
In a meeting with the Maharaja of Patiala, Bhupinder Singh, and others, Gilligan promised to press for its inclusion in the ICC if all of the game's promoters in the country united to establish a single controlling body. After Gilligan gave assurance on 21 November 1927, a meeting was held in Delhi, which was attended by delegates from Patiala, Delhi, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, Rajputana, Alwar, Bhopal, Gwalior, Baroda, Kathiawar, Central Provinces and Berar, Sindh and Punjab. The delegates agreed to create a board for control of cricket in India. On 10 December 1927, a unanimous decision to form a provisional board of control was taken, and the BCCI was formed in December 1928. R. E. Grant Govan was elected as its first president and Anthony de Mello was secretary.Page 44
In 1926, the BCCI joined the Imperial Cricket Council, then the governing body for international cricket. In 1936, the BCCI started India's premier first-class cricket championship the Ranji Trophy, which was named after the first Indian person who played international cricket, the King of Nawanagar state K.S. Ranjitsinhji, who played for England in international cricket. The Mumbai cricket team is the most-successful team, winning 42 titles.
In 1932, India played its maiden Test match under the captaincy of C. K. Nayudu against England at Lord's cricket ground in London. During England's 1933-34 tour of India, on 17 December 1933, Lala Amarnath became the first Indian batsman to score a test century, scoring 118 on his debut, at Bombay Gymkhana. In 1967–68, India won its first-ever Test cricket series outside Asia. Previously it had defeated Pakistan, New Zealand and England, and won series in India.
1945–1987
In 1952, the England team toured India; it was their first tour of India after its Independence. Nigel Howard was the captain of touring team. The former India captain Vijaya Ananda Gajapathi Raju, also known as Vizzy, was the BCCI president in the 1960s.
In 1975, the BCCI paid per match to the test cricketers. Banks, Indian railways and private enterprises would recruit players.
The board appointed Ajit Wadekar captain in 1971, the Indian team won their first test series against England on English soil, and against the West Indies, Sunil Gavaskar made his test debut in latter series.
India won the 1983 Cricket World Cup, defeating the defending champions the West Indies by 43 runs in the final at Lord's. India also won the World Championship of Cricket in 1985, defeating Pakistan by eight wickets in the final at Melbourne Cricket Ground. The BCCI hosted the 1987 World Cup; it was the first time the event was organized outside England.
1987–2000
Through the 1980s and early 1990s, BCCI paid per match to terrestrial television network Doordarshan to broadcast the Indian cricket team's matches.
It hosted the ICC Cricket World Cup competitions in 1987 and 1996.
In 1991, BCCI proposed South Africa's readmission to international cricket at the International Cricket Council (ICC). After the proposal succeeded, the BCCI sold television broadcast rights for the first time; South African Broadcasting Corporation purchased the rights to broadcast the South African cricket tour of India, South Africa's first official international tour after the 21-year boycott from international cricket. During this time, South Africa joined the "Asian bloc" of the BCCI and its South-Asian neighbours.
In 1993, the BCCI signed a deal with TransWorld International (TWI), which would pay the BCCI to televise England's tour of India on satellite television and Doordarshan would pay TWI for the rights to televise the matches in India. The 1993 Hero Cup was broadcast on Star TV, which made it the first cricket series to be broadcast on satellite television in India and broke the monopoly of Doordarshan. A lengthy legal battle between Doordarshan and the BCCI—which was led by Jagmohan Dalmiya and president I. S. Bindra—ensued. In February 1995, the Supreme Court of India ruled the television rights of India's matches were a commodity belonging to the BCCI, for which the broadcaster must pay BCCI and not the other way around.
BCCI, in a joint bid with Pakistan and Sri Lanka, won the rights to host the 1996 Cricket World Cup, defeating the England-and-Australia bloc. The tournament was a commercial success, yielding the ICC a profit of $50 million.
In 1997, Dalmiya became the president of the ICC. With Dalmiya at the head of the ICC, the BCCI led a successful proposal to grant Test status to Bangladesh in 1999–2000.
21st century
Since 2000, the BCCI has hosted and organized multiple ICC cricket World Cups competitions that is men's 2011 ODI world cup, the 2023 ODI world cup, the 2016 T20 world cup, the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy and 2021 T20 world cups; 2013, 2016 Women's Cricket world cups.
In 2007, the BCCI established the Indian Premier League (IPL), an annual, franchise-based, Twenty20 cricket league. In 2008, the BCCI sold the ownership rights of eight city-based franchises to corporate groups and Bollywood celebrities in a closed auction for a total of 723.49 million; it also sold the tournament's global media rights for 10 years to World Sport Group for 1.03 billion. The media deal was re-negotiated the following year to $1.6 billion. In 2010, the BCCI expanded the league to 10 teams, selling two new franchises for a total of 703 million. Due to the IPL's commercial success, similarly styled Twenty20 leagues appeared around the world, as did franchise-based leagues in other sports in India. A rebel league, Indian Cricket League (ICL) was owned and operated by Essel Group. BCCI banned Indian players who played in the ICL, including Hemang Badani, Dinesh Mongia, Rohan Gavaskar and Ambati Rayudu, but later gave amnesty to these players and lifted theirs bans after they ended their ties with the ICL. The BCCI blacklisted Essel Group company Zee Entertainment Enterprises due to this league, and expelled it from the BCCI in 2021. Zee was prohibited from buying BCCI's media rights. In 2006, the BCCI sold the Indian cricket team's media rights to Zee for the 2006-11 period but after Essel Group initiated the ICL, the BCCI terminated this deal. Zee fought a long legal battle with the BCCI; on 12 March 2018, a tribunal headed by three judges found BCCI guilty and asked them to pay Zee for losses. The tribunal found blacklisting of Zee by BCCI was illegal and said in judgement; "To us it seems that BCCI was exploiting its dominating position in respect of game of cricket in India" and also added Zee and its affiliated companies to the blacklist and banning them from participating in the BCCI bidding process was illegal.
Nimbus Communications served as the official broadcaster for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from 2006 to 2010. Nimbus broadcast matches through its dedicated channels, Neo Sports and Neo Cricket. Although the company originally acquired the broadcasting rights for $612 million, it only paid $549 million. In 2010, Nimbus also secured the rights for the subsequent broadcasting cycle. However, following a financial dispute between the BCCI and Nimbus regarding outstanding payments, the board officially terminated the contract.
In January 2010, the Pakistan Cricket Board criticized the BCCI and organizers of the IPL over the absence of Pakistani players, after the Pakistani cricketers were not selected in auctions from the second season in 2009 and third season in 2010. Media reports attributed the continued absence of Pakistani players to security concerns and geopolitical tensions following the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, which were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group.IPL 2023: Why aren't Pakistan players in the Indian Premier League? The Sporting News, 27 May 2023.
The BCCI does not allow its contracted, non-contracted, national and domestic players to participate in any cricket leagues abroad. Only players who have retired from all formats of Indian cricket can take part in foreign leagues. Players such as Adam Gilchrist have questioned this policy. Indian players such as Suresh Raina and Robin Uthappa have urged the board to allow non-contracted players like them to participate in foreign leagues.