Last week I had an opportunity to read a write up on the front page of leading Indian news paper The Economic Times about the audited financial statement of Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) for the year 2004/05.
The write up analyzed every details of it, starting from revenue growth to increase in expenses in every head. I enjoyed reading the article and also got excited to see the number as they were all above ten lakhs. BCCI’s total fixed deposit in banks stands at NPR 286.32 crores.
The major source of income has been television rights that fetched NPR 155 crores. To run its day to day operation BCCI spent INR 5.02 crores. BCCI spent NPR 12 Lakhs to purchase cricketing balls in the year 2004/05. It was interesting to note that BCCI spent INR 3.47 crores to battle legal cases.
I was wondering, I have all the information about the financial dealings of BCCI, that is not my area of interest, but what do I know about CAN? Probably being so close to the cricket I can guess the balance sheet size of the CAN. Nothing more than that!!
This is not limited to CAN, as a sport lover I do not have any information on ANFA’s balance sheet or any other sport institution’s financial affairs. Don’t we deserve to have a look on all the activities of sport institutions of our country, at least once a year? Is it not the responsibility of the people who are at the helm of these sport institutions to make their performance report card public at least once a year?
Maintaining transparency is one of the tasks of following good corporate governance. I remember, Rumesh Ratnayeke (ACC’s Development Officer to Nepal) in his recent television interview with Kantipur Television urged CAN to insure good corporate governance, in his reply to the question, what ACC expects from CAN?
I also remember the reply of Khushil Gunasekera, one of the board members of Sri Lankan cricket board during 2002, to my question, how Sri Lanka had been able to turnaround the standard of cricket in Sri Lanka? His reply was, “we have implemented strong management and follow good corporate governance in the board and all other cricketing bodies within the country. Having good management is prerequisite for the development the game in any country.”
Publishing CAN’s report card once a year will help to improve the accountability and responsibility within CAN. It will be an opportunity for CAN to make its achievements public, which will help them to reduce undue criticism and comments. It will also set the performance measurement yard stick for succeeding years. Moreover this practice will push the succeeding boards not to perform less than what has already been performed by the preceding board. Not only this, it is one way of keeping the board and management under control and disciplined. The concerned authority must now think, ensuring transparency of all the activities in all sport institutions within the country.