Cash-rich BCCI finally renovating its headquarters | Cricket News – Times of India

MUMBAI: BCCI, the world’s richest cricket body by far and one of the richest sports bodies in the world, has decided to renovate its headquarters here almost 17 years after it was established. With India scheduled to host the ODI World Cup later this year, the BCCI is going for a complete overhaul of its headquarters, the Cricket Centre, at the Wankhede Stadium premises here at Churchgate, TOI has learnt.
“Yes, the entire BCCI office is undergoing a much-needed, long-awaited renovation for the first time since it was built under the then Board president Sharad Pawar in 2006. Since this Monday, the entire 150-odd staff of the Board is working out of a ‘We work’ place in Worli. The BCCI has established a temporary office on one floor there,” a source told TOI. “This renovation will also include refurbishing the cabins of the office-bearers of the Board. The entire renovation process will take 6 to 7 months. The BCCI’s refurbished office should be ready in time for the 2023 ODI World Cup. A majority of the operation for the World Cup will take place out of there,” a source said.
“Before it moved into the Cricket Centre, the BCCI, from 1948 to 2006, had a 500 sq ft office at the North Stand, on the first floor, of the Brabourne Stadium at the Cricket Club of India. The BCCI’s Cricket Centre, a brainchild of Pawar, who also became an ICC chief later, was opened just a day before the final of the ICC Champions Trophy between Australia and West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium in 2006. At that time, we had taken up only the first and second floor of the building. When the BCCI launched the IPL in 2008, it took the fourth floor of the building too, where it established an office for the IPL,” Prof Ratnakar Shetty, who was the BCCI’s first Chief Administrative Officer before he retired in 2017, told TOI on Wednesday.
“The second floor of the building houses all the ICC trophies that India has won-the ODI World Cups of 1983 & 2000, the T20 World Cup of 2007, the Champions Trophy in 2013, the Under-19 men’s World Cup trophies, and the most recent prize-the inaugural Under-19 Women’s World Cup Trophy, which the team won in January this year. Those trophies are all in the cabinet. They must have been safely shifted somewhere,” Shetty said.
Presently, the BCCI occupies the first, second and fourth floor at the cricket centre, for which it pays rent to the Mumbai Cricket Association. The BCCI’s headquarters is where most of the Board’s major meetings -both of its Apex Council and of the General Body- take place.
As per a note to the members in the BCCI’s Annual General Meeting in October last year, the BCCI’s IPL chairman Arun Dhumal had informed the members that the BCCI’s coffers had swelled by nearly Rs 6000 cr. “When the current team took over the reins of the BCCI in 2019, the BCCI’s coffers had funds of Rs 3648 crores. We are handing over an organisation that sits over a treasury of Rs 9229 crores,” Dhumal, then an outgoing treasurer, had said in his note.
The BCCI’s coffers have increased in recent times with its decision to launch the Women’s Premier League. On Tuesday, the Board announced that the Tata Group, which is the title sponsor of the IPL, will also be the title sponsor of the inaugural edition of the WPL. Apparently, the deal with Tata for the WPL title sponsorship is for five years. The value of the deal, though, could not be ascertained. Earlier, Viacom 18 had secured the media rights for the WPL for Rs 951 crore for five years (2023-2027).
As per sources, the BCCI will also soon announce Adidas, a leading sports apparel and equipment brand, as the apparel rights holder of the Indian cricket teams. The Board is apparently close to signing up a five-year deal with Adidas to be team India’s apparel sponsor.