N Srinivasan has said the BCCI convinced the other member boards of the ICC to make the DRS optional by showing them a presentation on how Hot Spot had failed during India’s tour of England

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Oct-2011N Srinivasan, the new BCCI president, has said the Indian board convinced the other member boards of the ICC to make the DRS optional by showing them a presentation on how Hot Spot had failed during India’s tour of England. In an interview with , Srinivasan said the BCCI was not a bully but brought up the issue of the DRS again at the ICC executive board meeting in Dubai because the problems with Hot Spot were apparent.”The BCCI takes positions based not just on its own interests but also on its view on cricket,” he said. “In England, everyone could see the problems with Hot Spot, so we took the matter up again. We made a presentation of the decisions that clearly showed that Hot Spot was lacking accuracy. That is what convinced the members to revert to an optional DRS.” It is learned that the BCCI’s presentation showed eight correct decisions using the Hot Spot technology and also eight errors to make its point about the technology not being close to the 100% accuracy that is sought of the DRS.”We are not at all the bullies of world cricket,” Srinivasan said, “but on the contrary we go out of our way to assist other member nations. It’s difficult to dispel the notion that we are [bullies] because it is constantly referred to, but it is not a fact.”Srinivasan has taken over as president at a difficult time for the board, which is facing criticism after India’s disastrous tour of England. He refused to accept the claims that India’s slew of injuries during the England tour was down to a packed schedule or poor player management, repeating what he had said earlier about India playing the same amount of cricket as all other countries. “If we had won on the England tour no-one would have brought up the packed schedule,” he said. “It was a tour where we had bad luck. A number of players got injured during matches. Also, cricketers are highly paid professionals and are expected to take care of themselves.”He did say the board would look at the schedule again, “critically to see if anything can be done but I don’t accept the criticism that there is too much cricket being played.” He said it would be difficult to rework the schedule because the FTP was already decided and added, “It’s not so much the IPL and the Champions League, we have now got one ICC event every year … on the whole it is a crowded calendar.”Another issue that has been raised against the BCCI is that their earnings should be taxed as they are a profit-driven private body. Srinivasan denied this and said (video) the Rs 1.89 billion ($39.68 million) surplus the board made last year would all be spent on cricketing activities.”We are not a profit-driven organisation. As a professional, I would naturally like to get the best value for the product I have. So why would I sell my media rights short? Only to that extent do we run as a business.”Beyond that all the income we have is applied to cricketing activities: 26% goes back to the players, we spend on infrastructure, 70% of our income goes to the state cricketing associations and we also give them subsidies to build stadiums, plus the National Cricket Academy has a budget of 10 crores every year.”So, the 190 crores is a surplus, not a profit. By our own charter we have to spend 85% of the money we make in a year on cricket activities. If we don’t we can keep it in a fund but that needs to be spent in five years.”The reason it is important for the BCCI to have tax exemption, Srinivasan said, is because there is a lot of infrastructure that needs to be put in place and that will get delayed if the BCCI’s earnings are taxed.”If you take the number of venues we have in our country as compared to the population and size, we should have many more stadiums. It may cost thousands of crores of rupees to have all these built and the benefit of tax exemption is this can be done quickly and cricket can be taken to all parts of India.”One criticism often made of Srinivasan is that he has a conflict of interest from being a member of the IPL’s governing council and the head of the company India Cements, which owns the franchise Chennai Super Kings. Former BCCI president AC Muthiah has filed a petition in the Supreme Court asking them to pass an interim order preventing Srinivasan from functioning as the board’s president. Srinivasan said (video) there had been no occurrence in the running of the IPL to suggest any conflict of interest.”I don’t see any conflict of interest affecting my role as BCCI chief. On the IPL’s governing council there are eminent people, all independently capable of making their minds up on things. Nothing has been done specifically for one team. Everything that is decided is common for all teams.”I don’t think anything has happened which can be a cause of concern to anyone. All decisions have been fair and everyone has taken part in them. I have not really spoken on Chennai Super Kings. I have enough propriety.”Srinivasan said his first aim as the BCCI president was to ensure a better performance from the Indian cricket team than the one they put in on the England tour, and also said he wanted to “change the perception of the BCCI”.