IPL media rights auction: BCCI was committed to transparency and we've done that, says CEO Rahul Johri

Mumbai: The Indian Premier League (IPL) scaled new heights on Monday when its media rights were sold for a record Rs 16,347 crore to Star India for a period of five years, with the broadcaster playing around Rs 55 crore per match in the league for the said time frame. While the numbers, staggering as they were, dominated headlines across the country and grabbed attention in the other cricket-playing nations, what the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) emphasised on at the end of the event was the fact that they had delivered a transparent process, which they had been confident of doing all along. “The most important point from the BCCI point of view is to deliver to the people of India the most transparent process, and I don’t think anybody has an iota of doubt on that process. After that, numbers can come up, and we were committed to delivering the most transparent process, and we have done that,” BCCI chief executive officer (CEO) Rahul Johri was quoted as saying at a press conference at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, where Star India was announced as the new IPL media rights holder. [caption id=“attachment_4008483” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Rahul Johri at the IPL media rights auction in Mumbai. Twitter @BCCI[/caption] Star India CEO Uday Shankar, who was addressing the press after the event, was of the same opinion as his BCCI counterpart Johri. “And I would like to compliment the BCCI in particular, for running such an immaculately transparent process,” said Shankar. Meanwhile, BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary, replying to a question that brought up BCCI’s recent troubles with the Supreme Court, the root of which goes back to the IPL spot-fixing scandal four years ago, said that the board was going through a phase that could be labelled “difficult”, but was not necessarily “negative”. “In any journey of any organisation, there are many phases. Likewise, the BCCI has gone through a phase which would appropriately be labelled as difficult. In my view, if a phase did confront the BCCI where the organisation was made to examine oneself, I don’t necessarily think it was a phase which was negative. Therefore we’re still growing, it’s a stage of growth,” said Choudhary. The Star India chief, on the other hand, refused to comment on the BCCI’s ongoing tussles. The Indian board has been mired in controversy since the spot-fixing scandal broke out in the 2013 edition of the IPL. The impact of the scandal was such that it led to the BCCI banning three cricketers, including S Sreesanth, and the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha Committee suspending Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for two editions of the tournament. More trouble followed for the board as the Supreme Court passed most of Lodha Committee’s recommendations meant for the clean-up of the board. After failing to get most of the recommendations implemented, the apex court stunned the cricketing world by ordering the removal of Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke from the post of BCCI president and secretary respectively in January this year for failing  to implement the committee’s recommendations. While the BCCI, which have since come under the ambit of the court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), had recently agreed to implement a few recommendations, they continued to oppose contentious ones such as the compulsory cooling-off period, the one-state-one-vote policy among others.