Bindra lashes out at BCCI

IS Bindra, former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has taken exception to the board imposing severe restrictions on players and by inference blaming them for all the ills in Indian cricket.

Bindra is livid with the present board dispensation and accused it of distorting even minutes of Monday’s working committee meeting.

Bindra, who made one of his rare appearances at the last two working committee meetings after three years, is particularly unhappy with the way his friend Jagmohan Dalmiya tried to find fault with only the players for all the untoward happenings in the Indian Premier League.

“In the meeting Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya had read out from a prepared text to state that the mobile telephones of players should be impounded before they enter the dressing rooms and also ask them to furnish their bank accounts and other telephone numbers.’’

“He thundered that cheerleaders, after-match parties and owners’ entry to the dug outs should be banned from both the IPL as well as the upcoming Champions League,” Bindra wrote on his blog.

“During the course of discussions, I observed that we should not give the impression that the players are solely responsible for all malefactions and corruption in the game. I suggested that we should start the clean-up operation at the very top and the administrators should set the example by agreeing for public probity, thus standing up for ethical behaviour and moral standards,” he said.

Bindra says the top brass of the board have no moral right to preach to players when they themselves are facing charges of “conflict of interests”.