By IANS,
New Delhi : Expressing concern over the controversy surrounding the cricket Indian Premier League (IPL), the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday demanded transparency and accountability in its functioning.
Initiating a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the working of the ministry of youth affairs and sports, Congress member Jayanti Natarjan termed the IPL as an “example of crony capitalism” and the “worst example of corporate governance”.
“There is a desperate need to salvage its (IPL) reputation,” she said
“The entire budget of government’s panchayat ‘yuva khel krida abhiyan’ (youth sports campaign) for five years is equivalent to the amount paid by a franchise of the IPL. IPL will make a handful of people rich, grab headlines but the rural sports programme of the government will hardly get reported in the media,” she added.
Natarajan said that both should “coexist” but “we should get our priorities straight”.
She further said that since the IPL gets lots of concessions from the government, there should be accountability and transparency in its functioning, especially since “there were suggestions of multi-layered interests and hints at nexus with people who have conflict of interests.”
BJP’s Prakash Javadekar said people must come to know of the entire shareholding of the IPL franchises and also took a dig at Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel over his office staff’s alleged involvement in the IPL team bidding valuation process.
“Valuation of Indian Airlines and Air India was not done properly,” he said alleging that the minister was instead “taking interest in the valuation process of IPL bids”.
“IPL has become a global brand and players are also earning money through it but there should be transparency about its organisation structure,” Javadekar said, urging Sports Minister M.S. Gill to exercise his authority and bring about accountability and transparency in the IPL.