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The BCCI has discovered — mid-tournament, forty-six matches in — that people who should not be in the dugout are in the dugout, people who should not be in hotel rooms are in hotel rooms, and at least one captain was smoking something that is illegal in India on live national television. An investigation.
MUMBAI — Let us begin with the most important fact. The Indian Premier League is the richest cricket tournament on earth. The 2026 edition has a broadcast deal worth billions. It employs ten franchise owners, hundreds of players and support staff, thousands of ground personnel, and an Anti-Corruption Unit whose entire purpose — whose only purpose — is to ensure that nobody suspicious is hanging around team hotels talking to cricketers at irregular hours.The Anti-Corruption Unit has flagged that suspicious people have been hanging around team hotels talking to cricketers at irregular hours.
This reporter would like to pause here, breathe, and continue.
On April 28, during Match 40 of IPL 2026 between Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings in New Chandigarh, broadcast cameras panned to the Royals dressing room to capture the team's reaction to a tense run chase. What they captured instead was their 24-year-old captain, Riyan Parag, casually inhaling from what appeared to be a vape device. He had been dismissed moments earlier for 29 off 16 balls. Seated around him, with the expressions of men who had absolutely noticed and were choosing not to comment, were Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, and Kuldeep Sen.
The clip spread across every platform simultaneously, at a speed that scientists would describe as faster than the speed of a BCCI press release. Reactions ranged from outrage to recognition — because a 24-year-old reaching for a vape after a stressful dismissal is, as one cricket writer noted, "deeply relatable, deeply illegal, and deeply captured on four K cameras."
Vaping and e-cigarettes are banned in India under the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes Act, 2019. Using one in a dressing room therefore constitutes a cognisable offence under Indian law. Doing so on live national television while captaining a franchise worth hundreds of crores is, additionally, what legal experts refer to as "a situation." The BCCI has sought Parag's formal explanation. Parag has submitted it. Its contents have not been made public, but this reporter imagines the phrase "I was just holding it for someone" may have featured.
This was the second disciplinary issue involving Rajasthan Royals this season. Earlier, team manager Romi Bhinder had been caught using a mobile phone in the dugout during a live match and fined ₹1 lakh. One franchise. Two violations. The season is not over.
On the evening of May 8, BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia sent a seven-page advisory to all ten IPL franchises. A seven-page document. For adults. Running billion-dollar enterprises. The advisory covered the following topics, each of which could have been summarised as: "please behave."
What The Seven Pages Contain — Abridged
- Hotel Room Access: No guest may enter a player's room without written authorisation from the Team Manager. The team manager in several cases had been "entirely unaware" guests were present. This means players were hosting visitors without telling anyone. In a ₹50,000-per-night hotel. During a tournament with active anti-corruption protocols.
- Honey Trapping: The BCCI has formally warned franchises about "targeted compromise and honey trapping that pervade high-profile sporting environments." This is in the official advisory. In writing. Sent to ten teams. This is now a documented part of IPL 2026 history.
- Irregular Hours: Players may not leave team hotels at "irregular hours" without informing their Security Liaison Officer (SLO) and Team Integrity Officer (TIO). The existence of these titles — Security Liaison Officer, Team Integrity Officer — suggests a level of oversight that the violations indicate was not being used.
- Owner Hugging: Franchise owners have been observed "attempting to communicate with, approach, hug, or otherwise physically interact with players during live match situations." The BCCI has banned this. The fact that this needed to be banned — formally, in writing, in a seven-page document — is the most extraordinary sentence in Indian sports governance in 2026.
- Vaping and Prohibited Substances: Banned from venues, dressing rooms, dugouts, team hotels, training areas, and, one assumes, the general vicinity of cricket.
When the BCCI mentions honey trapping, unauthorised hotel visitors, suspicious persons in dugouts, and "serious legal allegations," it is dancing carefully around a word. That word is fixing. The board has not used the word. This reporter is not using the word. We are all simply noting that the Anti-Corruption Unit exists specifically to watch for match-fixing, that it has flagged multiple violations this season, that strange people have been in team environments without authorisation, and that a year from now we will either look back at this advisory as responsible governance or as the paper trail nobody followed up on.
The advisory was sent in Match 46 of 74. Forty-six matches. Six weeks into the tournament. The stable has been open since April 5. Several horses appear to have left and returned and possibly brought friends. The BCCI is now installing a door.
The IPL 2026 Chaos Report Card
| Person / Entity | What They Did | How They Are Coping |
|---|---|---|
| Riyan Parag | Vaped on 4K broadcast cameras immediately after dismissal, in front of Yashasvi Jaiswal, during a live IPL match | Has submitted an explanation. Is 24. Has the energy of someone who has learned a very expensive lesson. |
| Romi Bhinder RR Team Manager | Used mobile phone in dugout during live match. Fined ₹1 lakh. | Fined. Warned. Still employed. The phone has presumably been put away. |
| The Unnamed Franchise Owners | Were physically hugging players in the dugout during live matches | Have been told, in writing, in an official advisory, that they cannot hug their employees during working hours. Processing this. |
| The Unnamed Players | Let strangers into their hotel rooms without telling anyone | Must now get written permission from their Team Manager before having guests. They are adults earning crores. This is their life now. |
| Yashasvi Jaiswal | Was seated next to Riyan Parag during the vaping incident and said nothing | This is the correct response. Jaiswal is averaging 55 this season. He has other priorities. |
| The BCCI | Issued a seven-page advisory in Match 46 of 74 | "We are not sitting idle." — BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia. They were, arguably, sitting somewhat idle until Match 46. |
| The Anti-Corruption Unit | Exists. Noticed things. Reported things. Things happened anyway. | Filing reports. Conducting checks. Wondering why they weren't listened to in Match 1. |
| Vaibhav Sooryavanshi | Is 15 years old, is opening the batting, and is presumably watching all of this unfold from his hotel room, alone, with written permission from the Team Manager | Fine. He scored 39 off 20 balls last week. He is the only fully uncomplicated story in this team. |
The BCCI has promised random checks. Sanctions range from show-cause notices to financial penalties to suspension or disqualification from the IPL — this season and future seasons. The advisory has been distributed. The SOP has been signed. Every team now knows that the BCCI is watching, that the cameras are watching, and that the Anti-Corruption Unit has been watching for some time and has a growing file.
Twenty-eight matches remain. The playoffs are approaching. The honey trap warning is in writing. The owner hugging ban is in effect. The vaping conversation has been had.
The IPL will be fine. The IPL is always fine. The IPL generates enough money that fine is its default state regardless of what is happening inside it.
Somewhere in a team hotel right now, a player is filling out a written form to let his cousin visit for tea. The Team Manager is reviewing it. The Security Liaison Officer has been informed. The Team Integrity Officer is on standby. The cousin is waiting in the lobby. He has been waiting for forty minutes. He just wanted chai.
This is IPL 2026. This is what we've built. It is spectacular. It is chaotic. It is India. It is, somehow, still the greatest cricket show on earth.
