Report No. 275

B. History of BCCI

1.6 The process of creation of BCCI started with two members of the Calcutta Cricket Club being permitted by the Imperial Cricket Conference to attend the ICC meeting at Lord's on 31st of May and 28th of July 1926. The permission was initially granted upon a condition that an administrative body for the control of cricket in India would soon be formed.5

1.7 After the directive was issued by the ICC, a number of cricket bodies in India started interacting and discussing about the formation of a central cricket body in India. All the cricket associations of India agreed on the idea of a central administrative organization for the control of Cricket in India for improvement of the sport in the country.6

1.8 On November 27, 1927, a group of 45 people representing various cricket associations located in different parts of India got together at the Roshanara Club in Delhi to take some concrete initiatives towards the formation of such an association. A Board of Cricket Control was deemed essential to ensure the following:7

• Arrange and control inter-territorial, foreign and other cricket matches.
• Make arrangements incidental to visits of teams to India, and to manage and control all-India representatives playing within and outside India.
• If necessary, to control and arrange all or any inter-territorial disputes.
• To settle disputes or differences between Associations affiliated to the Board and appeals referred to it by any such Associations.
• To adopt if desirable, all rules or amendments passed by the Marylebone Cricket Club.

1.9 Subsequently, in December of 1927, in a meeting at the Bombay Gymkhana, a unanimous decision was taken to form a 'Provisional' Board of Control to represent cricket in India. The plan was for this 'Provisional' Board to cease to function as soon as the eight territorial cricket associations were created; and, that the representatives of the eight associations would then come together to constitute the Board.

1.10 However, by late 1928, only six associations - Southern Punjab Cricket Association, Cricket Association of Bengal, Assam Cricket Association, Madras Cricket Association and Northern India Cricket Association - had been formed.8

1.11 The Provisional Board then met in Mumbai in December 1928, during the Quadrangular tournament to discuss the next course of action. It was at this meeting that the decision to form a proper board for control of cricket in India was taken, and subsequently, BCCI was established. Five months later after its establishment, BCCI was admitted by the ICC as a 'Full Member' representing India.9

1.12 BCCI is registered as a society under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975. It is headquartered in Mumbai, and is the central governing body regulating the game of cricket in India, inter alia selecting the national team for international cricket tournaments, as is done by other National Sports Federations for their respective sports.