BCCI's 'naked show of strength'

The BCCI refused to provide space and access to BBC and Sky commentators for England's tour of India, citing "overbearing costs" as the excuse. This, reasons Osman Samiuddin in the The National, is BCCI's naked show of strength, which is money.

The BCCI has been making big money since 1996 and unimaginable amounts of it since 2008; $800,000 is the kind of change that is probably lost among their sofa cushions. This is actually about the BCCI making money to show that the ability to generate it endlessly also grants them the right to not just exercise, but to actively show off the power of that money: it is a naked show of strength.

This is how the BCCI now measures itself and its relations, through acts such as this.