The Supreme Court will not falter in finally cleaning cronyism in the Indian cricket administration. The cricket board too has a great opportunity of using the whetstone of the lodha panel report to end its cabalism. But it may not be very willing unless compelled
Even as discredited liquor baron Vijay Mallya signed off on his deal with Diageo and collected the first tranche of his $75 million payout, the curse of the Indian Premier league had struck one more time. Mallya, a passionate IPl franchise owner, had lost Royal Challengers Bangalore forever — the baleful influence of IPl taking its toll, as Freddie Mercury’s cult song, Another one bites the dust, played full tilt in the background. From the day IPl was architected by former Indian Premier league chief lalit Modi on behalf of the Indian cricket board, a large swathe of men and women associated with it has lost its mojo. lalit Modi himself became its first high-profile victim in the kerfuffle with N Srinivasan, who shut him out of the league, the game and the country itself. Over its nine-year history, the list of victims is long and illustrious. The tree having been shaken again and again.
Team owners, associates, players, principals, cricket board czars and even broadcast CEOs have fallen by the wayside. The imposing facade of this cathedral of commerce and dubious shenanigans belies its decaying and termite-infested interiors. lalit Modi, who appropriated all power while he was at the helm, was a victim of both his own self-generated hype and envy. Of the original eight franchise owners, N Srinivasan’s Chennai Super Kings and Suresh Chellaram/Manoj Badale/Raj Kundra owned Rajasthan Royals have both been turfed out because of their involvement in the betting and spot-fixing scams. Srinivasan has lost his presidentship of the board and chairmanship of the ICC, his son-in-law and team principal Gurunath Meyiappan hounded by cops and other agencies.
The biggest casualty, of course, remains the the Board of Control for Cricket in India itself; from purportedly being a charitable organisation working towards the development of the game in the country, it transformed into a commercial organisation that made money from the game through the IPl. Actually, the IPl became the cricket board’s worst enemy, a weapon of mass destruction erasing everything in its path. From taxmen to the Supreme Court, everybody began to hound the BCCI, its unfettered independence under challenge. Its autonomy questioned by the apex court, its very structure under the microscope and the Justice RM lodha panel’s prognosis — a radical and tectonic change in the way the board functions. Greed begets greed and that in turn brings envy. lalit Modi using Bihar Cricket Association frontman Aditya Verma as a stalking horse, has managed to destroy theboard’s credibility and the fixing and betting allegations has wrecked the very underlying credo of the game itself in India. The ‘fixed’ Rajasthan Royals versus Chennai Super King game throws into stark relief cricket’s precipitous fall in the country. Big names were involved and while the cover-up has protected them, the team owners, principals and players have been barred from the league for two years and cricket itself in the land.
Continuing with the curse, another original franchise owner, the flamboyant T Venkat Ram Reddy, owner of Deccan Chronicle Holdings and Deccan Chargers franchise, has been embroiled in innumerable controversies: Arrest, multiple court cases, seizure of assets, bank defaults, fraud, forgery and finally sale of the franchise to the Marans of Sun TV. The Marans too have suffered ever since they joined the secret society. They have since sold their airline, SpiceJet, back to its original owner Ajay Singh, have CBI and ED probes against them in the BSNl illegal telephone exchange and the Aircel-Maxis deal. Dayanidhi Maran lost his ministership in the UPA Government. The Marans have limped from one controversy to another. Even Shah Rukh Khan has found himself being interrogated repeatedly by the Enforcement Directorate for allegations of round-tripping and inflating the price of shares in Kolkata Knight Riders. Interestingly the financial fortunes of most team owners have also slipped alarmingly — GMR (Delhi Daredevils), Deccan Chronicle Holdings, United Breweries, Sahara — ever since they joined the axis of cricket. The only franchise which remains unscathed is the one owned by the Regent of Nariman Point, Mukesh Ambani.
Of the newbies who came in later, the Kochi Tuskers franchise imploded quickly as Satyajit Gaekwad and the diamantaires fought bitterly over who called the shots. Sunanda Pushkar, who had sweat equity in the original Kochi franchise, was found dead mysteriously in a tony Delhi hotel room. Her then friend and later husband Shashi Tharoor lost his ministership in the UPA Cabinet. A couple of years after Sunanda’s death, one doesn’t conclusively know whether it was suicide or murder. The other new franchise, Pune Warriors owner, ‘Saharashree’ Subrata Roy, unfortunately very much another victim of the fabled IPl curse, now in Tihar jail for the last two years after a protracted battle with market regulator SEBI, is unable to satisfy the apex court of his intentions.
IPl CEO Sundar Raman had been handpicked by lalit Modi. But his survival instincts forced him to take refuge under the Chennai Super King’s mega umbrella protection service. He too now has been thrown out after the Supreme Court initiated BCCI/IPl clean-up. One of the earliest victims was IPl broadcaster MSM/Sony Entertainment TV CEO Kunal Dasgupta who, one fine morning, found himself ousted in a palace coup. The toxins have begun to be purged, though the resistance is stiff. But if the IPl doesn’t self-regulate this season onwards, who knows what the future of the league and the game it promotes will be in India.
Avarice has brought the board to its knees. Without its main frame being dismantled, it will never conform to becoming a patently straightforward organisation — one that is far removed from a private opaque cosy club which is answerable to none. As it is, the board and some of its affiliates are trying to thwart the lodha committe, saying that some of the recommendations are completely unacceptable. For instance, they are opposed to one-State-one-vote (Gujarat and Maharashtra, traditionally, have three votes each), selection committee truncated to three members, advertising cap et al.
On Tuesday, the apex court criticised the BCCI for its ‘discriminatory’ distribution of funds sanctioned to State cricket boards. The country’s top court wondered why 11 State cricket boards had been given no money. N Srinivasan had smartly bought everyone’s silence by throwing money their way. Of the important staging associations, many were plied with disproportionate amounts of money to revitalise their infrastructure — which they did. “BCCI must have distributive justice. Why are eleven States pennylessIJ” the court asked the BCCI.
At the hearing on Tuesday, the Bench comprising Justices T S Thakur and FMI Khalifulla said, “This is not an ordinary panel. It is a committee on which we have complete faith. It is a committee of judges and its findings have to be relied upon. We cannot say that the findings are perverse. They have come after consultations with experts and a wide spectrum of people, and the recommendations have been given by a former CJI, who have experience and they have arrived at some conclusions.” The last word has still not been said; it is obvious that the board will try all its dilatory tactic tricks. But the Supreme Court will not falter in finally cleaning the cronyism in the Indian cricket administration. Meanwhile, the board has a great opportunity of using the whetstone of the lodha panel to end its cabalism.