Problems for the BCCI started the day it commercialised the game and began earning profits through its wholly-owned subsidiary, the Indian Premier league. When greed gets greedier, it attracts envy and that’s what happened to the IPl
Cronyism has found one more victim. The Indian cricket board’s cumulative sins, like chickens, have home come to roost. After haunting and stalking the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for sometime now, the Supreme Court has finally fixed the private cosy club. For the first time, the BCCI, which considered itself above reproach, was told categorically, that it cannot remain ‘unhindered by any regulation or other control.’
For years now, the board had taken the plea that it was an autonomous body, registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act as a charitable institution and, hence, did not come under the purview of any institution. The death rattle could be heard for long as the Independent Republic of BCCI or the Board that was a law unto itself finally had to genufluct. The apex court mandated that the Justice lodha Panel would oversee implementability of the new charter over a period of six months and that this did not require any more discussion.
What was the BCCIIJ An amorphous, unholy coalition of politicians representing different ideologies but united in the dyed colours of the Indian cricket administration. Ruling for decades, either directly or through proxies, as the men behind the mask,jagirdaris of patronage bequeathed to family members — cases in point being Rajasthan and Haryana.
The BCCI and several of its staging associations, flush with the cash that the game generated, were quaking in their boots for the end of the zamindari raj as we know it within India’s most opaque private cosy club of cronyism has been written. With a great sense of foreboding, the BCCI had tried to use every loophole and escape clause to stall.
The Supreme Court had warned at the very outset — “If the BCCI is finding it difficult to implement them, then it is easy for us to make it happen. We will accept all the recommendations and direct the same committee (Justice lodha panel) to implement it for the BCCI.”
Which is exactly what it has gone ahead and done now to counter the devious dithering and machinations of the cricket board. This means the end of the BCCI as we know it. Its troubles began with the spinning off an impenetrable secret society called the Indian Paisa league (sorry the Indian Premier league(IPl)) as a counter to Subhash Chandra’s Indian Cricket league, moving away from its original charter of development of the game as BCCI to making crass commercial gains from the IPl.
This avarice of the board is where the story gets twisted. Once the BCCI morphed into a commercial enterprise making truckloads of cash from what was originally envisaged as a charitable society, it lost the moral high ground once and for all. Even then, it could have limped its way out of the combat zone by taking a few injuries. But once again, greed came in the way and under the power-drunk despot N Srinivasan, it opened up itself to all sorts of misdemeanours leading to investigations.
The secret society became a hydra-headed monster which outgrew the cosy club — the BCCI — to bring shame to the game in the land. Police investigations, spot fixing, betting, nepotism, bribery, sleaze and outrightly open cronyism and corruption became its bugbear. What accentuated the board’s problems was that its president remained in denial, completely oblivious to the charges and blasé about his own son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan’s underhand dealings.
The Chennai Super King, N Srinivasan, who was in contravention of all that is principled and stood for the high standards of ethicality, morality, transparency and governance norms, continued to live in an ivory tower, unchallenged and unperturbed. All it got was righteous indignation. How did it all endIJ
The Supreme Court, after following due process and listening to all the petitioners, wants a Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) nominee on the nine-member apex governing council which will run the board instead of the all-powerful working committee, an antediluvian concept borrowed from the grand old party Congress; perhaps.
The CAG nominee will have an all access card on financial matters — accounts, contracts, deals and such. In fact, the federal auditor will set up an oversight mechanism to maintain financial transparency in the board and in its dealings with state affiliates. According to the Supreme Court, this will help bring transparency and objectivity necessary to inspire public confidence in the fairness and management of the affairs of the BCCI and State associations.
The morally corroded Srinivasan bought peace with everyone by shutting their mouths with cash from rivals in staging associations to ex-players with authoritative voices (barring Mohinder Amarnath), till his bete noire lalit Modi using the instrumentality of Aditya Verma hunted him down like a cornered quarry.
As they say in Hindi, inka paap ka ghada bhar gaya tha (the pot of sins is full to the brim). It must be said that Srinivasan was the teflon man for he managed to wriggle out each time. It was amazing that Srinivasan remained first among equals for so long. The malfeasance meanwhile had spread like a contagion and finally it was the last man standing — the Supreme Court — which ended his journey in the world of cricket.
like it had done before with gargantuan corruption scandals like the 2G spectrum scam and discretionary and preferential coal block allotments, lalit Modi’s indirect petitions brought Srinivasan down with a thud. His ego the size of a cricket field keeling over.
Sadly, the crucible for the BCCI is a spot fixed game involving Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, which featured several top Indian players including the one day captain. The team principals — Gurunath and Raj Kundra — were subsequently found guilty of betting and their teams suspended for two years. That one of the principals was the son-in-law of the board president Srinivasan made the gravity of the crime even more serious. What lalit Modi birthed as a counter to Indian Cricket league has become the device or a wrecking crew to take down the board’s unchallenged edifice.
As a private club-cum-consortium, its problems started the day it commercialised the game and began to earn profit through its wholly-owned subsidiary IPl. From a private charitable institution, with the conception of the IPl, it changed its character and hue completely, since profit motive overtook the original leitmotif of development of the game. When greed gets greedier, it attracts envy and that is precisely what happened to the IPl. It is said that the mother of all evil is speculation and once that entered the equation, like a creeping virus, it broke through all firewalls, turning the secret society called IPl into something deeply malignant.