National Sports Development Bill

The National Sports Development Bill (NSDB) has been brought by the ministry of Sports on February 22, 2011 which invited all stakeholders, including sports bodies, sportspersons and the general public to submit their comments and suggestions within 30 days.

The draft provides a new set of rules providing age and tenure guidelines, which are the basic principles of the Bill along with various new rules. One can go to the official press release by the Government of India and read the salient features and provisions of the Bill at the following: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=70001

A committee has been formed to look into the provisions of the draft and has been asked to give its report and recommendations in two weeks. One of the guidelines in the proposed NSDB is that all NSFs come under the Right to Information Act (RTI) and this also includes the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).  Sports Minister Ajay Maken felt that all sports federations are a repository of public trust and they have to be accountable under the proposed National Sports Development Bill.

While Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and National Sport Federations (NSF) have said that they will out rightly reject the National Sports Development Bill proposed by the sports ministry. Shashank Manohar, the BCCI chief said that the board is waiting for the draft provisions to be made known to them.

The Bill also will have BCCI under its control and this will put a stop to the monopoly of the BCCI in cricket in India. Once the Bill passes as a law, BCCI can’t send any team they wish, to any competition calling it the Indian team. More over BCCI will lose the monetary benefits like exemption from customs duty and income tax.

Tags: BCCI, India, Indian Sports, IOA, National Sports Development Bill, NSDB, NSF, Sports, Sports India