The BCCI's defence of Sharjah
Editor's note: What follows, is the verbatim quote from the BCCI document in defence of its functioning, following on from the CBI indictment. This quote refers to India's playing in Sharjah.
The Coca-Cola Cup at Sharjah 1998
Apart from specific mention of the Coca-Cola Cup in Sharjah in 1998, the CBI report has generally castigated India’s participation in the Sharjah tournaments. It is therefore, important to deal with the background of India’s participation in the tournaments at Sharjah and the rationale behind such participation over the years.
Cricket in the desert had started since 1981. Some cricketers used to get together to play matches amongst themselves in 1981 and 1982. From the very beginning however, and even before India had sent official teams, the organisers in Sharjah used to pay a benefit purse to former and present cricketers of the subcontinent. In 1983, major Asian countries got together and formed the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). One of the major decisions of the ACC was to send official teams to Sharjah, instead of some individual cricketers going and playing there.
Since former and present cricketers were being directly benefited financially, it was decided to promote cricket in Sharjah. Official Indian teams had visited Sharjah since 1984 and the organisers continued the system of paying the benefit purse to the former and the present cricketers. Subsequently, the Board had established a system on the principle of seniority and the number of matches, according to which “beneficiaries” in Sharjah had been determined.
The guarantee money paid to the Board for the Indian team’s participation in the Sharjah tournaments has increased over the years. From USD 15,000 in April 1984, it was increased to USD 60,000 until November 1986. Thereafter, between the period March 1988 to April 1990, the guarantee money was increased to USD 80,000 and USD 100,000 in October 1991.
It was in October 1991 that the Board had decided that it would not participate in the tournaments in Sharjah for the time being.
Thereafter, in the Board’s Working Committee meeting held on 18 December 1993, the members reviewed the matter of India’s participation in the tournaments in Sharjah. It was decided that the Indian team would participate in the tournaments, subject to the agreement of the organisers regarding certain conditions including guarantee money, payment to the beneficiaries, playing conditions etc. The members had authorised the then President, Mr I.S. Bindra to deal with those issues with the organisers. Mr Bindra had discussed the issues with the organisers and decided that India should resume participation in the Sharjah tournaments. Subsequently, India participated in the tournaments in Sharjah since April 1994. The guarantee money to BCCI was increased from USD 100,000 to USD 130,000 from April 1996 that continued upto the contract period of November 1998.
It was in 1998-99 that the BCCI under the presidency of Mr Raj Singh Dungarpur had entered into a fresh agreement with the organisers and the guarantee money payable to the BCCI was stepped up considerably. The BCCI earned USD 250,000 for participation in the April 1999 tournament, USD 295,000 for participation in the March 2000 tournament and USD 320,000 for participation in the October 2000 tournament.
It is to be placed on record that the guarantee money received by BCCI has been the highest or equivalent to other ICC Full Member participating teams in the Sharjah tournaments. No other country was ever paid higher guarantee money than India at any point of time. Apart from this, the recipients of the benefit purse are mostly Indians.
In addition, as mentioned earlier, the organisers of the Sharjah tournaments had been paying a benefit purse to three former/present Indian cricketers during each tournament featuring India, as per the approved list of BCCI. Each former/present cricketer is awarded a purse of USD 35,000.
Therefore, not only has the Board benefited because of participation in the tournaments at Sharjah, Indian cricketers too have been beneficiaries on a regular basis. From 1981 to 2000, 46 former and present Indian cricketers have been beneficiaries and the total amount paid by the organisers towards the Indian beneficiaries has been to the tune of USD 15,35,000 (Rs 7 crores). There was no reason for the Board to discourage the participation of the Indian team in the Sharjah tournaments. The cricketers who have been beneficiaries from the Sharjah tournaments are :
1981: Madhav Mantri
1982: Sunil Gavaskar, Subhas Gupte
1983: G.R. Vishwanath, Ramakant Desai
April 1984: B.S. Bedi, Salim Durrani
March 1985: Syed Kirmani, Eknath Solkar
November 1985: Vijay Merchant
April 1986: Dilip Vengsarkar, Vijay Hazare
March 1988: Lala Amarnath, Mohinder Amarnath
October 1988: Ravi Shastri, B.S. Chandrasekhar
October 1989: Polly Umrigar, Krishnamachari Srikkanth
April 1990: Ghulam Ahmed, S. Madan Lal
October 1991: C.S. Nayudu, E.A.S. Prasanna
April 1994: Rusi Modi, S. Venkataraghavan, Mohd. Azharuddin
April 1996: Chetan Chauhan, Yashpal Sharma, Hemu Adhikari
December 1997: G.S. Ramchand, Ashok Mankad, Dilip Doshi
April 1998: Brijesh Patel, Shivlal Yadav, Pankaj Roy
November 1998: Naren Tamhane, Roger Binny, Aunshuman Gaekwad
April 1999: Nari Contractor, Sandip Patil, Karsan Ghavri
March 2000: Bapu Nadkarni, Chandu Borde, Maninder Singh
October 2000: Dilip Sardesai, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Rusi Surti
A detailed list stating the guarantee money received by the Board for each tournament in Sharjah, the quantum of money received by former/present cricketers as beneficiaries and their names may be found in APPENDIX I to this document.
It is understood that the hosts make a considerable profit from these tournaments. The details are however, not available with the Board since it is an internal matter of the hosts. It is however, a pity that the Board has been criticised for encouraging tournaments in Sharjah that benefit the former and the present cricketers or those in Toronto where the Board is able to make direct profits close to US $ 1 million.
It is amply clear from the figures that there was no way that “India has undersold itself” as alleged by the CBI. It was also incorrect on the part of CBI to suggest that the BCCI office bearers who were examined by the CBI officers could not “satisfactorily explain” the matters. No BCCI official could have agreed to the contention that the Board had earned only Rs 1.5 crores from the 1999 World Cup, whereas the actual earning was Rs 10.75 crores.
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