The Lodha committee's suggestion of "uninterrupted telecast without ad breaks" between overs in int'l and Indian Premier League games at home will encounter "strong opposition" from the Board of Control for Cricket in India, "it seems," according to Indranil Basu of the TIMES OF INDIA. Sources said that projected telecast rights revenue, which is pegged around Rs 2,000 crore ($300M) for '16, would "shrink by as much as 75% if those ads are taken off air." Sources said it would "then have repercussions on players' salary, income of the IPL teams from the central revenue pool." Besides, the BCCI could also be forced to "stop the pension scheme for former cricketers, a top official feared." The Supreme Court-appointed panel has recommended airing of ads "only during drinks, lunch and tea intervals." BCCI mandarins, "who did not wish to come on record, reacted strongly to it and said that if the income of the board was affected, then the expenditure will have to be reduced." The panel said in its report, "Commerce has also overtaken the enjoyment of the sport, with advertisements continuing many a time, even after the first ball and again commencing even before the last ball of the over is played, thereby interrupting ... proper broadcast of the game." Sources said that the BCCI makes Rs 20 crore ($2.9M) for every IPL match and with 60 matches to be played every season, the BCCI stands to gain Rs 1,200 crore ($180M) from the IPL annually. A top BCCI official said, "If the Lodha committee report is implemented, the board will then make only Rs 300 crore ($45M) from the IPL." The officials said, "The pension scheme for former cricketers will have to be scrapped." The BCCI also said that it has a "clear understanding with its broadcasters -- Sony and Star -- to keep the sanctity of the game coverage intact by showing all crucial moments of the game and not to miss a single ball of a match." Therefore, the question of commerce "overtaking the enjoyment of the sport is not there according to the BCCI" (TIMES OF INDIA, 1/10). In New Delhi, N. Ananthanarayanan reported while the recommendations of the Supreme Court-appointed panel "seem to have finally persuaded the BCCI to acknowledge that with big power comes big responsibility," the influential cricket body could "so easily have escaped this plight by adhering to the CBI report" in '00. The report said, "BCCI is in control of huge amounts of public funds without any concomitant rules, regulations/laws that govern the manner in which public funds are to be utilized. There is no accountability of any office-bearer of the BCCI similar to the one imposed on public servants when dealing with public funds." The Lodha panel "touches almost every aspect of BCCI’s governance, drawing from the inputs provided by more than 130 people it interviewed and the cricket reform reports of other countries it studied." As the BCCI allows its state associations to study the implications, "the key areas are 'one state, one vote,' 'one man, one post,' barring ministers and government servants from holding office and the suggestion to appoint a CEO with at least five years experience and a proven track record with a Rs 100 crore ($15M) company" (HINDUSTAN TIMES, 1/10).
