Board of cricket out of control

Rohit Mahajan

The old order doesn't changeth in the Indian cricket board (BCCI). Left to its own devices, BCCI won't change. Change involves relinquishing power, but BCCI's officialdom only grabs power, the notion of giving it up is alien to it.

However, change is being forced down the throat of Indian cricket's ruling body — the Supreme Court has practically pinned down BCCI, sat on its chest and is forcing a bitter pill down its throat. Like a wayward child, BCCI is doing its best to spit out this medicine. This is being done by the country's ruling class, the elite — because BCCI comprises the leading politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats of the country. BCCI is a congregation of men who are princes and want to be kings. 

Consider this — Narendra Modi gave up the top job at Gujarat Cricket Association only after being elected India's Prime Minister. Farooq Abdullah aspired to become the country's president, but he wishes to cling to the strings of power in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association and will ‘fight till my death’ for it.

When the betting and match-fixing scandal broke in the IPL in 2013, neither Modi nor Abdullah spoke against the then BCCI president N Srinivasan, whose son-in-law was clearly involved in the scandal.

After an inquiry that was horribly inadequate and possibly manipulated, it was decided that there was no problem. Srinivasan and his beloved son-in-law — memorably termed an ‘enthusiast’ by Srinivasan — were innocent. Business could continue as before.

It took a strong and deep interest by the Supreme Court to unravel the story and draw out damning facts that resulted in punishment to Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. Srinivasan had to go.

Why didn't BCCI clean up its act? Why didn't the politicians who run BCCI — and who lecture us on virtue and morality in their avatars as politicians — try to clean up IPL and BCCI? These are critical questions, and two new books provide some answers.

Not out! by Desh Gaurav Sekhri purports to tell the ‘incredible story’ of IPL. Sekhri, a Delhi-based sports attorney, doesn't write like a passionate fan of the sport. He isn't a cricket romantic. His worries do not pertain to the damage the excess of T20 cricket could cause to cricket, and he's not worried that many players prefer the money of IPL over the honour of playing for their country.

He makes some rather large claims.  He declares that IPL ‘embraces so much of Indian culture that it is now synonymous with it’. What! Even if someone could pinpoint exactly what ‘Indian culture’ is, to equate that with a commercial sports league is probably inaccurate and certainly disproportionate. He also believes that ‘the IPL has successfully popularised T20 cricket across the world’! Er, exactly where? Japan? Sudan? Argentina?

Sekhri tells the ‘incredible’ story in a dry manner, but he does faithfully recount it, warts and all, since its birth in 2007 and its first season in 2008. The picture that emerges isn't very pretty — as he notes, no IPL season has been free of a big controversy. The operations of IPL and BCCI were run in the best traditions of crony capitalism — Lalit Modi seems to have been a secret owner of more than one team, power was concentrated among a few individuals, ownership patterns of some teams are extremely dubious. He notes BCCI did things that were contrary to the spirit of good governance for one reason — ‘because it could’, because it felt it was above scrutiny and accountability.

Shantanu Guha Ray's Fixed! Cash and Corruption in Cricket is very relevant in these days when spot-fixing and match-fixing have become sporting terms. The movie Azhar tells the tale of Mohammad Azharuddin, but its ‘facts’ are so biased that one wonders if the screenplay was written by Azharuddin himself.

This is a good book because it goes into the nitty-gritty of match-fixing, and thus sweeps aside the naive notions movies such as Azhar project.

Guha Ray, a veteran journalist, recounts the match-fixing themes of the last few years: The deaths of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer and confessed match-fixer Hansie Cronje; spot-fixing by Pakistan's Salman Butt, Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Amir in 2010.

The most relevant of these themes is corruption in IPL and BCCI. BCCI was determined to bury its head in sand even as much went wrong with cricket in India. Guha Ray writes that BCCI acts only when external pressures become unbearable.

BCCI has shown signs of change over the last couple of years; clearly, the Supreme Court's pressure had become unbearable!