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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is an organisation that “promotes sport”, according to the Indian finance minister.

A wire report carried by various Indian news websites on Wednesday said that the minister in question, SS Planimanickam informed the national upper house, the Rajya Sabha that the BCCI is registered under Section 12A of the Income Tax Act, which provides income tax exemptions for “charitable institutions”.

The BCCI is deemed a charity by virtue of Section 2(15) of the Act, which states that the “promotion of sports and games” is considered to be a “charitable purpose” for the intent of the legislation.

So there you have it. Not only does the BCCI have the purpose of promoting the game of cricket, but it is a charity! File that away for future reference…

I’ve been providing some cheap entertainment for CricInfo readers on the 23 Yards blog over the past week.

Now Amit Varma is one of India’s better known bloggers - I often enjoy reading India Uncut - but his socio-economic world view is, well, a tad different to mine.

Anyway, have a read of the thread in question… I’d love to know if anyone thinks I was barking up the wrong tree.

A latent cricket fan, or an ignoramus about Indian culture (and, indeed, of non-American cinema)? You be the judge.

From the transcript of Bush 43’s round table interview with Indian journalists in the White House last Wednesday:

Q Between a cricket match and a Bollywood movie, what would a —

THE PRESIDENT: Cricket match and a —

Q You like watching?

THE PRESIDENT: What was the second?

Q It’s between a Bollywood movie and a cricket match.
THE PRESIDENT: I’m a cricket match person. (Laughter.) I appreciate it. As I understand it, I may have a little chance to learn something about cricket. It’s a great pastime. (Laughter.)

One wonders if Bush has ever met Gladstone Dainty, or even heard of him. I bet he knows Allen Stanford…

Momentous steps forward in the merging of women’s and men’s cricket administration in India were taken on Monday, when the BCCI’s Working Committee met in New Delhi. The title of this post says it all. Today’s The Hindu reports.

Let’s just recap a sequence of events involving the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) over the past year or so:

1. BCCI bids for the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy (after attempting to snatch it from England in 2004 when the latter was in trouble over relations with Zimbabwe)
2. The BCCI is told by ICC that Indian Government must grant tournament a tax exemption if India is to host Champions Trophy
3. Indian Government grants tax exemption. ICC awards 2006 Champions Trophy to India
4. BCCI decides it doesn’t like the idea of a Champions Trophy, saying it will clash with the peak period of India’s home international season
5. BCCI says it won’t take part in future Champions Trophies after the 2006 tournament, which it is hosting
6. BCCI announces intention to bid to host the 2011 ICC World Cup, either on its own or in partnership with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Now this all looks on the surface like rank hypocrisy but it’s not that straightforward. Between items 3 and 4 came the much-delayed BCCI elections which saw Jagmohan Dalmiya defeated for the presidency by Sharad Pawar.

Jagadish raises a number of worthwhile points in his blog, but I wonder whether the sabre-rattling of the new administration is really the best way to win friends and influence people, even if they appear to already have Cricket Australia onside. I’ll have more to say about all this later.

Just a thought to mull over as I head off to bed.

Does a minimum number of overs have to be bowled before Sunny Gavaskar does his daily podcast in this series? Podcasts for days two and four of the Lahore Test are now out, following from his debut on Day One, but it seems the fifteen overs of play produced on Monday was insufficient.

I suppose it was pointless having high hopes for this latest platform for Gavaskar’s bland platitudes. Not a word of criticism for the Pakistani bowlers, even the pitch is called a “beauty” after Sunny invites the curator to fix up all the potholes on Indian roads, so immaculate is the roadway he has constructed at the Gaddafi Stadium.

But Gav the Gab really should learn the meaning of some of the cliches he makes use of. He says that the final day’s play will not merely be of academic interest - there’s the record for the opening partnership to be broken, Sehwag going for his triple century and maybe Lara’s world record, there’s the question of how far Dravid can go, how many India can score before stumps… Sorry mate, but that all fits neatly under the banner of “academic interest” in a match which, as a contest, will die the moment India notches up 480.

Ravi Shastri is also doing voice reports on this Test, which can be called up by mobile phone users in India. Save your dough and listen to them on CricInfo (when it’s not overloaded) like the rest of us. The Ravicasts are, however, not technically podcasts as they can only be streamed, and not downloaded for future reference.

Not that the Ravicasts are rivetting listening either, and his voice gets drowned out by that bloody background muzak. At least he acknowledged the existence of the Pakistani bowlers. A legendary ex-cricketer does not necessarily an interesting commentator make. Where’s Navjot Sidhu when you need him?

The first edition of Sunil Gavaskar’s podcast “My Own Pitch” is up on Yahoo! India. It’s a fairly dry summary of the first day’s play of the Lahore Test. The podcast’s web page is here if you want to download or subscribe. (If you’re a Juice or Ipodder user, then this link should handle the subscription for you.)

The first edition runs for 2 minutes 43 seconds, but beware, it contains a loud background hum and seems to end abruptly.

The First Test between Pakistan and India is now hours away and, as usual, the broadcast arrangements within India have only just been finalised this week. And there are winners and losers, as usual.

The losers, surprise surprise, are the Indian population, at least everyone with access to a television or radio but not cable TV or internet (let’s not even go near 3G mobile). DD Sports will be permitted to carry ninety minutes of highlights on delay each evening as a result of Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling. There’ll be no radio broadcast of the Test in India at all, AIR having refused rights holder ARY Digital’s unprecedented asking price of $US 400,000.

There’s an interesting collection of winners out of this deal, including those struggling small businesses the Sony Corporation and the Discovery Channel. Indiantelevision.com did an analysis of the financial benefits arising from the Supreme Court decision.

Plane finds people playing cricket on runway

“I was playing cricket with my friends as usual on the strip. We heard the plane, but didn’t care, as no plane lands here daily. But suddenly I saw a plane rushing towards us and we began running to save our lives,”

Saturday’s Indian Express tells the rest of the story.