The Indian Premier League (IPL), as a brand, has been affected by recent developments, felt BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur, explaining that the Indian cricket has come out of it and got stronger.
“If you look at the history of cricket, there have been ups and downs but we have become stronger with every passing phase. So is the Brand IPL. As far as branding is concerned, I personally feel yes, we got a hit. In the last couple of years, we have struggled, but we have brought reforms in the last few months and it has paid off.”
Responding to a query about the board’s focus on fixing the problems in IPL, he replied: “You can’t create success stories overnight and you can’t clean up the mess overnight but I assure you in the last seven months, we have tried our best to bring in reforms. Our focus was not on the individual but the institution. Cricket is the most-loved sport in this country and we understand our role. I can assure you and the cricket-loving fraternity that we are here to deliver. People have faith in cricket and in the BCCI. We can deliver, I can assure you that.”
The conflict of interest in IPL is one of the major issues the BCCI was forced to take up, relating to team ownership and resulting in suspension of two franchise teams for two years.
Asked if he felt the Board’s image was dented by this, he said: “We wanted to draw a line for anyone who has a conflict of interest — as a coach, as a player, as an administrator. We are trying to create a paper (guidelines) to make it more clear for all members to come back with ideas and clarifications, which will be discussed in the upcoming Annual General Meeting on November 9.”
The AGM will also decide on the number of players to be retained for two years by the new franchises coming into the IPL. The BCCI secretary said: “In the last working committee meeting we made it very clear that we are going to implement the Lodha Committee report in toto. The two teams will remain suspended for the next two years, players will go back into the pool.”
Thakur added: “We are still working on those guidelines and will come out with a detailed report at the AGM about how many players can be retained by the two new franchises for the next two years. Once we prepare that list, we will make it public.”
