The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had made huge promises to the fans after securing a bumper deal thanks to the e-auction of media rights of Indian Premier League (IPL). The IPL media rights made the BCCI richer by a whopping Rs 48,390 crores.
Indian cricket board’s secretary Jay Shah had said that the BCCI will use the money received from IPL media rights for the betterment of domestic cricket and to enhance the fan experience.
Taking to Twitter, Jay Shah had said that the board will work on boosting the domestic structure, work on infrastructure and focus on the overall cricket-watching experience.
“The BCCI will utilize the revenue generated from IPL to strengthen our domestic cricket structure starting from grassroots, to boost infrastructure and spruce up facilities across India and enrich the overall cricket-watching experience,” Jay Shah had tweeted after the successful e-auction of IPL’s media rights for the next cycle.
However, a BCCI official has exposed the board’s hypocrisy as he revealed that they are not interested in introducing DRS technology in domestic games.
The ongoing Ranji Trophy final between Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh is being played without the DRS technology and Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan got away with an LBW shout as the bowling team did not have the option to challenge the on-field call.
Speaking to The Times of India, a BCCI official said that the board believes in their umpires and that is why they have decided not to have DRS for the country’s premier domestic tournament.
“We believe in our umpires,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying by The Times of India. A former India player made an excuse to save BCCI’s image by saying that using DRS will shoot up the costs as it is an expensive exercise. The unnamed former cricketer also put his weight behind Indian umpires, saying that the country’s two best officials are officiating the Ranji Trophy final.
“It’s an expensive exercise to use the DRS. The costs shoot up. How does it matter if there’s no DRS in the final? It’s time we trusted the umpires. India’s two best umpires (KN Ananthapadmanabhan and Virender Sharma) are officiating in this game. And what’s the end result? If you use it in the final, you will want to introduce it in the league stage of the Ranji Trophy too,” a former India player told TOI.
We all saw the facilities at the M Chinnaswamy stadium during the washed-out final T20I between India and South Africa when fans, who spent their hard-earned money to watch cricket inside the stadium, had to run for covers on a rain-affected day as the broken roof of the stadium in Bengaluru was leaking.
After spending thousands of rupees on match tickets, fans expect basic amenities at the venue. However, for years, the BCCI seems uninterested in making the fan experience better and it is about time they start caring about the fans as they have the power to spoil the board’s fun.
