Govt brings BCCI under its ambit; age cap to be relaxed

National Sports Bill, aimed at reforming sports administration, will be tabled in the Lok Sabha today

- Avishek Roy

The National Sports Governance Bill 2025 that will be tabled in the Parliament on Wednesday will bring the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) under its ambit, according to top union sports ministry officials.

BCCI thus will come under the Right to Information (RTI) Act as it will be a recognised National Sports Federation (NSF).

“Every sports federation in the country will come under this Act. BCCI too will come under it,” said a top ministry official. “We will have to study the Bill and then we will see what we need to do,” said BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia.

The bill also raises the upper age limit for officials to 75 years from 70, which has been welcomed by NSFs. It means Roger Binny will be eligible to continue as BCCI president.

The sports ministry had in 2010 declared all NSFs as ‘Public Authority’ under the RTI Act, 2005. However, BCCI, which has been mostly governed by heavyweight politicians and administrators, has pulled its weight to stay outside its ambit. That scenario will change once the National Sports Governance Act takes effect and BCCI comes under its purview. “A recognised sports organisation shall be considered as a public authority under the RTI Act with respect to the exercise of its functions, duties and powers under this Act,” according to the draft bill.