Throw light on the status of Rs 80 crore BEST Fund, BCCI asks Sports Ministry

Four years after contributing Rs 50 crore to a corpus set up to promote excellence in cash-starved disciplines like archery, boxing, wrestling, swimming and judo at the behest of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) now wants to know the status of the fund and how the money is being disbursed, says a report in The Times Of India.

Claiming to be “totally in the dark”, BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale has written a letter to joint-secretary, sports, government of India, requesting him to throw light on the status of the Rs 80 crore BEST Fund (BCCI-NSDF Elite Sports Talent Fund) that was ‘set up’ in July 2008 with a view to training prospective medal winners at mega international events like the Beijing Olympic Games (2008), Commonwealth Youth Games (2008), the Commonwealth Games in Delhi (2010) and the Asian Games in 2010.

In its letter to the sports minister, Jagdale has regretted the fact that in four years of its existence, the BNIC held only two meetings, the last being on May 29, 2009. “We do not know if in reality a corpus of Rs 80 crore, as promised, was set up. We request you to kindly give us the details of the BEST Fund since its institution and also inform us of the status of the BNIC executive committee formed to regulate the fund,” the letter states.

Meanwhile the Indian cricket team will be playing five One-day matches and two Twenty20 matches in Sri Lanka from the third week of July, says a TOI report. According to sources, the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) was initially interested in playing a full-fledged series against India, including a short Test series. But due to hectic scheduling, the Indian cricket board (BCCI) couldn't accommodate Test series, but has given go ahead to the One-dayers and T20s.

Meanwhile, Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has paid a courtesy visit to Nepal President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav at the Rastrapati Bhawan. Accompanied by wife Sakshi, Dhoni also visited Maiti Nepal -- rehabilitation centre for trafficked women in Kathmandu -- besides worshipping at the revered Pashupatinath shrine before wrapping up his two-day visit to the country. Dhoni, though, could not attend a felicitation programme organised by the Pashupati Area Development Trust, the organisation that looks after the affairs of the Hindu temple, says a TOI report.