Multi-crore BCCI’s office is 2BHK space!

Yet the BCCI’s most obvious face—its administrative offices at Veer Nariman Road—easily qualifies as the most modest corporate headquarters.

Located, and almost hidden, in one of the several nooks of the massive Brabourne Stadium, you would miss the nameplate if you weren’t specifically looking for it.

Grilled doors and 21 steps—counted to avoid tripping in the dim light—precede this first-floor office.

Friendly, approachable officials cannot distract the eye from the peeling roof in the passageway and the desperately taped walls.

Files, though stacked neatly, cramp the shelves spread over one room, divided into three parts. Despite India drawing a blank in trophies in the last season, the nation’s net aggregate haul still commands one entire section.

BCCI Executive Secretary Ratnakar Shetty admitted the headquarters are cramped considering the stacking area required but says day-to-day work is not being hampered.

‘‘Still, we do need more space, especially considering our stature and the paper overload,’’ Shetty said.

The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) offered to host the central headquarters at its Wankhede stadium premises in 2003. And MCA Joint Secretary Lalchand Rajput, who raised the issue at a recent working committee meeting in Delhi, said all sanctions had been procured.

‘‘The BCCI had agreed in principle and there was a general consensus that the office should look better and have better facilities, especially when we have people visiting us from all over the world,’’ Rajput said.

He added that the MCA had offered a 10,000-sq ft area for a plush facility, complete with a conference room and library. “The matter will be pursued by the BCCI’s headquarters committee,’’ Rajput said, admitting that there had also been talk of shifting base to Delhi.

‘‘Almost all government offices relating to permissions and paperwork are in Delhi, but the MCA was keen on keeping it in Mumbai. The matter is under deliberation,’’ Shetty said.

None of this means one will see a ‘We’re moving’ sign any time soon. ‘‘The BCCI had set up a committee to spearhead the relocation, but it has been disbanded. We will be setting up a new committee soon,’’ said BCCI Treasurer Jyoti Bajpai.

It is still not clear why the issue of renovating or relocating was brought up only as late as 2003. (The subsequent delay was owing to the board finalising the new location.)

The physical appearance and modest size of the BCCI’s administrative headquarters are neither a reflection of nor have any bearing on Indian cricket or the way the team plays on the field.

But when everyone seems to agree that a cosmetic change would be in keeping with the Board of Control for Cricket in India ’s stature and deep coffers, why is the world’s richest cricket board still stuck in a 2BHK?