Opaque Chess League bidding norms draw flak as ad leaves prospective bidders puzzled
The Indian Chess League, which is scheduled from June 2022, will be on the lines of the popular IPL
The plan of the All India Chess Federation’s (AICF) to hold ‘Online Chess League’ and ‘Chess in School’ has drawn flak after bidders accused it of opacity regarding qualifying criteria for becoming franchises. The Indian Chess League (ICL), which is scheduled from June 2022, will be on the lines of the popular Indian Premier League (IPL) organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
The event is expected to generate thousands of crores of rupees in revenue. Similar to the IPL, the ICL will have multiple franchises owning multiple players from India and abroad. Reports inform that along with the ICL, the AICF plans to start two more events- the ‘Online Chess League’ and ‘Chess in School’ for which an advertisement was issued earlier this month. The ad invited an expression of interest (EOI but the lack of details in this advertisement left the prospective bidders puzzled.
The advertisement, which is also available at the AICF website aicf.in, reads as follows, “The All India Chess Federation invites companies to submit an expression of Interest for a proposed Online Chess League and partner in Chess in School programme to take place from 2022. Interested experienced parties having sound financial background may submit their applications with complete details to email: indianchessfed@gmail.com by 25th December 2021.”
What surprised the prospective bidders was the absence of a request for proposal, that usually describes the scope of work, financial arrangements and qualifying criteria. Reports inform that amid the confusion, replies from AICF to the enquiries by prospective bidders further confounded them. The bidders stated that these important are not put up in the advertisement.
Many bidders resorted to writing letters to the AICF saying that “everything looked very arbitrary and confusing”. A bidder asked the AICF to provide the following details “transparently and clearly”. Reports inform that a questionnaire sent to the AICF president, Dr Sanjay Kapoor, on December 24 elicited no response till the time of writing this. Reposts quoted a bidder saying that the AICF was copying the BCCI style of functioning that led to the Supreme Court setting up the Lodha committee to regulate its functioning in order to ensure transparency and integrity. He said the AICF would not be allowed to choose the franchise in this non-transparent and arbitrary manner.
In the finals, the top two teams will witness a clash. Each team will consist of eight players, including two Super Grandmasters, two Indian Grandmasters, two Women Grandmasters and one Junior Indian boy and girl each.
