Promises made and largely delivered

On October 4, the day he was elected BCCI president, Shashank Manohar made several commitments to make the board a cleaner and more transparent organisation. He had asked for two months' time to put the plan into action; here's what's happened so far.

Conflict of Interest guidelines

Proposal: "The board would frame regulations with regards to conflict of interest of administrators, players and their staff. That would be done within a month's time."

Action taken: Manohar's three-page document, listing the various conflicts that administrators (both BCCI and state associations), players and employees (board and state associations), was sent out in October. Concern, confusion, criticism followed in clipped tones and whispers but after the BCCI AGM on November 9, Manohar declared all the proposals were accepted unanimously. On November 21, conflict of interest guidelines were published on the board's website.

Response: At the AGM, Manohar had revealed that former national selector Roger Binny had to vacate his position owing to the perception of conflict concerning his son Stuart, who is part of the Indian squad. Another former selector and Indian legspinner Narendra Hirwani stepped down as chairman of the Madhya Pradesh selection panel as he did not want to hurt the future of his son Mihir, who plays for the state.

Appointment of ombudsman

Proposal (made at the AGM): "The board would appoint an ombudsman who would be independent of this board and who would look into the complaints as with regards to conflict of interest of the administrators, players or the staff."

Action taken: Former chief justice of Madras and Delhi High Court AP Shah was appointed as the first ombudsman of the BCCI. Shah was vested with independent powers with Manohar making clear that the ombudsman's decision would be binding when it came to conflict of interest issues concerning administrators, players and employees.

Response: The Kolkata-based National Cricket Club, one of the 30 members of the BCCI, has approached the ombudsman asking his intervention to remove the club's longstanding secretary and director KP Kajaria, who has been alleged of not holding elections for many decades.

Tackling corruption

Proposal: "The board would lay down the norms and would make programmes to educate players. We would like to meet the government officials to see and work out if we can get certain investigative agency, because the board people do not have any investigative powers and therefore our hands are tied."

Action taken: The BCCI has approached the Maharashtra government to set up an Intelligence Gathering Unit (IGU), which will see the board and Maharashtra Police working together. The IGU, based out of Mumbai, will work in coordination with BCCI to share information with the security agencies of other states on cases relating to corruption. This is the first instance of BCCI tying up with a security agency of a state to counter corruption in the game.

Response: None so far

Independent audit of accounts of State associations

Proposal: "We would build a system by which the accounts of the affiliated units would be audited by an independent auditor appointed by the board. The board would also be empowered to take action in case the board finds that the money which has been given to the state association is not being properly utilised."

Action taken: The BCCI appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers to look into how funds granted to the state associations were being utilised. The board also engaged Deloitte as part of its 'Project Transformation' to strengthen its governance structure and improve financial processes.

Response: While there have been no reports of an independent examination of accounts of state associations yet, it is understood that a couple of state units were not sanctioned funds from the board following discrepancies in their financial records.

BCCI constitution and balance sheet to be made public online

Proposal: "There is another grievance that the board is not transparent. I feel that this problem could be sorted out by putting on the website of the board the constitution of the board, all the rules of the board, any expenditure made by the board over and above an amount of [Rs] 25 lakhs (approx. US$ 38,000), so that people are aware on what activities the board spends their money."

Action taken: In his first act as president three days after taking charge, Manohar made the BCCI constitution available online. More recently, the board's annual report for 2014-15 and payments of more than Rs 25 lakh have been published on the BCCI website.

Response: Although there is no tangible outcome as a result of this measure yet, there is direct access to these documents; the links to the reports have been displayed prominently on the homepage of the BCCI site

Reinvigorating the NCA

Proposal: "The board would also look into starting of National Cricket Academy (NCA) again, whose activities are not up to the mark as on date. And we would see to it that NCA functions round the year so that cricketing talent is developed in this country."

Action taken: The board appointed Dilip Vengsarkar as the chairman recently after Brijesh Patel had to reportedly step down owing to the conflict-of-interest guidelines introduced by Manohar.

Response: Vengsarkar said he hadn't yet formulated a plan of action, but that he would present his vision to the NCA board during this week.

Women's cricket

Proposal: "The board would also like to develop women's cricket and we would enter into contracts with women cricketers as we enter into contracts with men's team. That would promote the game and more and more women players would love to play this game."

Action taken: Women cricketers were formally handed out contracts at the BCCI's AGM. They will be contracted under two categories - A and B - and will be paid Rs 15 lakh and Rs 10 lakh each.

Response: The introduction of contracts has been welcomed by women cricketers. "I think it's a very positive move from the BCCI," India women's team captain Mithali Raj told ESPNcricinfo. "Because they were not financially secure, a lot of girls have left the sport to take up some other job. That will not happen now with contracts in place."