All sports needs openness in decision making: Gill

New Delhi: Against the backdrop of the furore surrounding the Indian Premier League, Sports Minister M S Gill on Wednesday said like democracy, all sports should have “openness and free debate in decision-making”.

“India is a fiercely democratic country in which open and free debate and discussion takes place in decision making.

This applies to all the things including sports,” he told reporters outside Parliament here.

On suggestions to nationalize IPL and cricket, Gill said “it is a strange word and a phrase used by someone else.”

When asked about the necessity to clean IPL and cricket, he said, “Democracy is like a sunflower, which needs a lot of sunshine. I think that applies to sports also.”

On whether politicians involved in sporting bodies were misusing their powers, he said “there was no need to say anything.”

The Minister, however, reiterated his various suggestions about Olympic sports, which included a clear knowledge about the voter list acceptable to the states which represent, a Returning Officer who is independent of the IOA or the federation and secret ballot.

“You know they don’t have it. My attitude applies to all of them. I was a cricketer once upon a time…let’s see what happens,” he said.

The IPL is facing allegations of financial irregularities and is being probed by the Income Tax department. The event’s Commissioner and Chairman Lalit Modi is under tremendous pressure to quit his post due to the raging controversy.