New Delhi, India, July 23 : The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is currently deciding what it thinks about the National Sports Governance Bill 2025, which will be introduced in Parliament on Wednesday. Rajeev Shukla, the BCCI’s Vice-President, said that the board will look over the bill carefully before making any remarks.
“We will have to go into the bill after it is introduced. “I can’t say anything about it until then,” Shukla told ANI, holding off on making any comments.
On Tuesday, sources in the Sports Ministry acknowledged that the proposed bill’s goal is to bring the strong BCCI under its control. People were expecting this decision, especially because the Indian cricket team is going to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Even though the BCCI doesn’t get money directly from the government, its inclusion in the bill is considered as a big step toward more accountability. The BCCI is not one of the 45 recognized National Sports Federations (NSFs) and is currently registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975. If the bill succeeds, it could also be covered under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Officials say that the National Sports Governance Bill aims to solve a number of problems that have been there for a long time in sports federations. These include a lot of lawsuits over NSF elections and athlete selections, a lack of a separate mechanism for resolving disputes, not enough athlete representation in federations, and a big gender gap in sports leadership. The law also wants to make sure that all federations have the same rules for elections.
The new laws are also meant to fix NSFs’ lack of internal grievance redressal processes, inadequate governance, and lack of financial transparency. The main purpose of the National Sports Governance Bill is to provide a strong legislative framework that makes sure that sports organizations in India run in a fair and open way. Making sure that athletes are included in decision-making processes is a vital part of the plan. The law also wants to make it easier to settle disputes quickly by setting up a Sports Tribunal and to make sure that elections are fair and open by setting up an independent election panel. Officials made it clear that the government will not be in charge of sports organizations, but will instead be a facilitator, making sure that sports organizations are run properly.
This change could be a major turning point in how Indian cricket is run. It could lead to a time when the world’s richest cricket board is more open and accountable.