In what could run counter to the Board of Control for Cricket in India's claim that there is "nothing official" about the team selected by it, the Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that the manner in which the BCCI has been seeking permissions from the Centre, it appears to be 'Team India' and not 'Team BCCI'.

This observation came from a five-Judge bench comprising Justice N Santosh Hegde, Justice S N Variava, Justice B P Singh, Justice H K Sema and Justice S B Sinha when correspondence between the Government and the BCCI was brought to its notice.

The correspondence showed how the Board approached the government seeking permission on various issues for hosting cricket matches at home with foreign teams and also regarding sending the Indian team abroad.

Justice Variava said, "Because you (the Board) say that India is playing with such a country, that is why you go to the Union Government seeking permissions. It would not have been so if it was BCCI playing its club team."

Giving an example, Justice Variava said if a club wants to send its team abroad for playing some match, it would only have to seek visa from the foreign country and not permission from the Union Government.

Justice Variava said, "The stand of BCCI is that we never go to the government. On the contrary, you go to the

government from time to time. You should have disclosed this correspondence to the court earlier."