The Cricket Board today defended its stand on withdrawing financial benefits from
players aligning with the rebel Indian Cricket League, saying the proposed
tournament was an "out and out commercial venture".
The BCCI said the players were free to play for the ICL but it was only "fair"
that they should not expect benefits and privileges from the Board.
Responding to Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh's letter
urging Cricket Board to give up its confrontationist attitude against the break-away
League, President Sharad Pawar said the BCCI was a non-profit organisation
and what it had done to popularise cricket was "eminently obvious".
"You are right in saying that the players should be free
to 'opt and play as per their own wish'. It is most certainly up to the players
to choose whether they wish to play under the banner of the BCCI or ICL. If
they choose to play for the ICL, it is only fair that they should not expect
benefits and privileges from BCCI," Pawar said in his reply.
"The BCCI has a 75-year-old history and what it has done
to promote cricket is eminently obvious. The popularity of cricket in India
bear ample testimony to the effort put in by the BCCI," Pawar said in the
two-page letter.
Pawar said the earnings of the BCCI were spend in financing
cricketing activities of various state associations and in augmenting infrastructural
facilities.
"The earnings of the BCCI, which are substantial, are
poured back into the game that generates the money. The BCCI being the non-profit
organisation spends the money in financing cricketing activities and augmenting
infrastructural facilities in all the states associations."
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