Ravi Shastri urges Indian sporting bodies to follow the BCCI

One of the most popular voices in the commentary box and former Team India director of cricket Ravi Shastri has urged other sporting bodies in India to emulate the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in order to create world class athletes. Cricket is not only the most followed sport in India but the game has also given the billions of fans reasons to cheer.

The team has won the 50 overs World Cup twice, the World T20 as well as the Champions Trophy. Indian Premier League has also enthralled the fans with a high voltage dose. Indian cricketers as athletes have always been among the top performers in the sport.

Referring to the success the cricketing body has had in evolving the game Shastri said while speaking at the FICCI Frames. “If you want to cut and paste something out of cricket into other sports it is very simple. Ask this question to the youngster who is training to become an Olympic champion: Is he or she getting the same facility as a player from overseas. In cricket, I don’t care what Australia has, what England has, India is up there 90 per cent, so they might have that 10 per cent extra,”

“But I want to see other sports (up there). Is the gap only 10 per cent? I would say it is 70 per cent. So give those facilities to the youngsters and have the right people watching them like a hawk and you will see results,” he said.

A former Indian captain Ravi Shastri remembers the days when players like him were paid a sum of Rs. 10,000 as fees back in 1990. However, he pointed out that within a span of two years after his retirement, match fees were increased to a Rs. 3 lakh.

“The system (that BCCI) has is as good as any in the world if not the best. There is an opportunity with the money coming in through television. You are getting more and more facilities for people who did not have facilities like in Ranchi, Visakhapatnam, Dharamshala, Rajkot,” he added.

“For a guy in Rajkot to become big, you don’t have to go to Ahmedabad or Baroda to play a game, even though Saurashtra had the odd ground. What television has done is, it has taken the game into the drawing rooms where people are being educated about the game,” said Shastri.

He cited the example of some of the top players produced in Indian cricket and said that if the functioning of the cricket’s governing body in the country wasn’t as good as it has been legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev or even Ravi Shastri himself wouldn’t have emerged.

“BCCI were a fantastic body. You would not have had the Tendulkars, the Gavaskars, the Kapil Devs or Ravi Shastri without them being a good body. If you have got a professional body running, the focus is on delivering champions and giving them the best of the facilities, then you can (be good at other sports).

“Could you have imagined Ranchi staging a Test match or Rajkot having a cricket ground? You are taking the sport into the tier II towns, the tier III towns and making people believe and giving them the facility to play the sport at the highest level,” he added.

Based on a report carried out by ESP Properties-Sportz Power, sports sponsorship in India currently stands at a whopping Rs. 6400 crore, with cricket being responsible for 80 percent of this amount.

Shastri also believes that the way cricket is being telecast today is largely responsible for the game’s popularity and success. He thinks technological additions such as spider-cams have added a new dimension of quality to the game’s broadcast.

“It has just helped the game spread and the grassroots level is now getting the attention. That is where you need professionals to make sure the money is spent well where you produce champions,” Shastri said.