BCCI to communicate its objections to Sports Ministry: Shukla

Gurgaon: The BCCI will be conveying its reservations to the Sports Ministry regarding the revised draft of the Sports Development Bill, which was outrightly rejected by the Indian board.

The Board had said that certain aspects of the Bill seek to destroy the autonomy of the BCCI and dilute the rights of its members. "We will be soon be conveying our point of view to the Sports Ministry regarding the revised Sports Development Bill. We will also be soon meeting with the people concerned to sort out the issue and we hope for the best," Rajiv Shukla, the chairman of the IPL Governing Council, told reporters here. "Our (BCCI) stand is clear that there are certain clauses in the revised Sports Bill that are not acceptable to us. We have certain reservations to the certain clauses and BCCI can`t follow them," he added. The proposed bill wants to give BCCI the status of a National Sports Federation and therefore bring it under the purview of the RTI Act. Relations between the BCCI and sports ministry have been strained over this contentious issue. On the issue of BCCI categorising Indian Premier League games as `List A` matches, Shukla said, "Players are contributing a lot and I think that performance must reflect somewhere in the records. It`s a great effort and we want to maintain a record of their performances. "Till now, we don`t maintain the record of IPL matches as far as data is concerned. Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 trophy matches were recorded for the personal record. The IPL record will be helpful to the players," added Shukla. The working committee of the BCCI, which met last week in Kolkata, decided to consider the IPL matches as `List A` matches. In the meeting, where the BCCI also awarded the central contracts to the players for the 2011-2012 season, left-arm paceman Ashish Nehra was not considered for even in grade `C`. Shukla said, "Selectors prepare the list and it`s up to them to decide which player they want to extend the contract. They had prepared the list keeping certain aspects in mind." PTI