MUMBAI: The annual report of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the financial year 2013 – 14 shows a decline in gross media rights income as it dipped from Rs 774.24 crore  to Rs 419.38 crore. The honourary treasurer of the board Anirudh Chaudhry blamed lack of international action in India for the dip in media rights income. During the year of consideration, the annual gross receipts from international tours was Rs 193.52 crore as against the Rs 216.02 crore in the previous year.   

BCCI’s million dollar baby Indian Premier League (IPL) did not disappoint the treasurer. Gross receipts from IPL 2013 were Rs 1194 crore as against Rs 892 crore of previous year. 

The treasurer said, “This is because the receipts from IPL media rights income have gone up from Rs 556 crore to Rs 844 crore and the franchisee consideration has gone up marginally from Rs 460 crore to Rs 502 crore.”

The rights income from Champions League has also gone up, as a substantial hike from Rs 278.88 crore to Rs 327.50 crore was registered. 

Receipt from ICC share of distribution remained at Rs 32.26 crore. There is a reasonable increase in interest income from Rs 85 crore last year to Rs 120 crore for the year of consideration. “This is mainly because of better treasury operations in getting better-negotiated interest rates for the short term deposits and efficiency of operations,” said Chaudhry.

In the year under consideration, the expenses on cricketing operations went down marginally from Rs 551.17 crore to Rs 516.83 crore. The provision for gross revenue share payable to the players has gone down from Rs 48.57 crore to Rs 11.02 crore. “This is because of the lesser media rights income. From 2013-14, the Board decided that all the common expenses, which are not allocable to any specific tournament would be apportioned on the basis of revenue generated by IPL, CLT20 and BCCI’s international tours. This will reflect more accurately the income generated from these activities of Board,” said Chaudhry. 

In the year under consideration, the surplus of income over expenditure was Rs 526 crore as against Rs 319 crore in 2012-13, before any appropriation. In the current financial year 2014-15 the budgeted surplus is estimated at Rs 391 crore. 

During the year four finance committee meetings were held. The following decisions were taken during the year: 

· The Board awarded the Team Sponsorship contract for the period from 1 January 2014 till 31 March 2017 to Star India. 

· Star India was awarded the title sponsorship for the limited period from October 2013 to December 2013 in which two series i.e., India versus Australia and India versus West Indies were played. 

· The back office of the honorary treasurer was set up in Chennai from 1 April, 2014 and the coordinating office of honorary treasurer was established in New Delhi. 

· The allowances and fees payable to support staff accompanying the senior team, A team, under 19 team, junior team and women’s team were revised.

· Under the scheme of One Time Benefit to former players, an amount aggregating to Rs 1.55 crore was paid during the year under consideration. 

· Under the infrastructure subsidy scheme, the member units have claimed Rs 764.03 crore till 31 March, 2014, including subsidy for ground equipment. 

· During the year, Board invoked the Bank Guarantee given by Sahara Adventure Sports (Pune Franchisee) to recover the balance franchisee consideration of Rs 133 crore. 

· During the year, as per the order of Supreme Court of India, the three bankers of Nimbus, who had provided the Bank Guarantees of Rs 1600 crore together and who had not honored the invocation of the Bank Guarantees by the Board and had challenged the invocation, paid Rs 400 crore to the Board against an undertaking from the Board that in case the decision goes against BCCI the said amount will be returned along with the applicable fixed deposit interest.

· During the year the team won the ICC Champions Trophy and the Board awarded prize money of Rs 1 crore to every playing member of the team and Rs 30 lakh to every member of support staff. 

· In the last Annual General Meeting, a new Finance Committee was appointed under the chairmanship of Dr. Ganga Raju. The Finance Committee and the Treasurer’s office benefited from the rich experience of Dr. Raju.