I.S. Bindra, Principal Adviser, ICC

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 •If I’m in the cricket stadium at Mohali and my guest is not an active cricketer, who else could it be but I.S. Bindra. Welcome Mr. Bindra.

Thank you, Shekhar. It’s nice to be on your show.

•It’s nice talking to you in what really has been your creation—the finest cricket ground in the country.

It has been a team effort. We are a wonderful team and we’ve been working as a team. That’s the result you get when you work as a team.

•This dressing room looks like a first-class lounge at an international airport.

We are happy to keep adding facilities. We are still a long way from being the best ground in the world and our objective is to be the best. There is no reason why what they do in stadia abroad can’t be done in India. We’ve got more money in the game.

•I’m glad you say this because more and more people are beginning to say it, though in the past we were shy to admit that we generate so much money, that we are a big source of funding around the world.

We had some business people with conservative outlook who said one should never talk about making money because you invite the wrath of the government, you invite the jealousy of the media and you get on everybody’s wrong side. But at the end of the day, there is nothing wrong with it. We have to get over this feeling that making money is a crime. We’ve had this feeling in the country for too long. Just as the country is getting over this mindset, the cricket board is also getting rid of it.

•So when do we see this as the home of cricket?

We have a master plan, which we were originally scheduled to complete by 2020, but we have fast-tracked it because a lot more money is coming into the game.

•This is more money than you had imagined and it has come sooner than you had thought.

More money has come into the game than we had thought. In the past three years it has been nothing short of a revolution. It’s millions and millions. Many state associations can’t find the means of spending it. That’s the way money is pouring in.

•Is there a problem of plenty? You don’t know what to do with it?

Some associations have a problem of plenty. They aren’t spending on infrastructure, they still don’t have a ground of their own. They don’t know how to because the money has to be spent within a year—85 per cent under the taxation laws. The result is that 20 new grounds are coming up and people are pouring in a lot of money on the infrastructure and creating facilities that will be as good as anywhere in the world.

•What kind of money are you sitting on? What’s your war chest at the moment?

In the Punjab Cricket Association, we spend the money as we go along. We keep improving facilities and we have taken up projects in districts.

•Are you building a stadium in Bathinda?

We are building a stadium in Bathinda, we are building a stadium in Jalandhar.

•The butt of many jokes, but lately made famous by the movie Jab We Met (laughs).

(Laughs) We want to have this facility in every district. We are taking up 500 schools in rural areas, where we are setting up infrastructure which will be as good as the practice facilities in Mohali.

•And how much is the BCCI sitting on?

The BCCI has cash, but 70 per cent of the money they make, in terms of media rights, is being given to the states. Most of the money is going to the states as part of their share of the revenue.

•Are you convinced that the states are using the money well?

Not all of them. Unless they set up infrastructure, have facilities at the district level, go to the grassroot level, provide coaches and equipment to schools...

•Tell me about some states that are using the money well.

Money is being used very well in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Vidarbha. Saurashtra has done an outstanding job, they are building a beautiful stadium.

•So finally the tradition of Ranji and...

Yes, it’s coming up. It’s an amazing success story for a small state like Saurashtra. Punjab has been doing well, but we came into the big league a number of years ago. Uttar Pradesh is doing so well at the national level, producing so many players, and they are coming from smaller towns.

•It’s odd, you know. We are walking past this magnificent pavilion and we see an anti-corruption surveillance unit, an ICC hotline, and no electronic communication (pointing to a sign on the door). Cricket has gone through a lot.

Cricket has gone through a lot, but it is a sign that reflects the positive side of the game, because anti-corruption has to be a very strong part of the game to regulate it.

•Tell me about your whistle-blowing moments.

It was a sordid and sad chapter as an administrator is not happy doing these things. A number of people advised me that I was running down the game that I had helped, in small measure, to build. But somebody has to play the role when this kind of malady takes over the game and, in retrospect, I feel it was a good thing. It was good for the game and the ICC’s anti-corruption unit has done a wonderful job. We no longer hear what we used to hear in the late ’90s.

•There’s no doubt matches were fixed.

I know and this was proved by an independent inquiry by the CBI.