The Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) which runs India’s most popular sport is acting like an errant schoolboy, not ready to do its homework nor willing to attend school. However, it seems to have lost the opportunity to get counselled and could get severely punished very soon.
For too long, the BCCI has been run like a fiefdom answerable to none. Registered as a society in 1928, the BCCI has operated with almost zero transparency. After India won the World Cup in 1983, the popularity of the sport soared in the country. With the masses thronging often, ill-equipped stadiums, the BCCI raked in the moolah and had zero accountability about its financial wealth and dealings.
The BCCI has avoided taxes on its income, claiming exemption as a charitable organisation. Although the Income Tax Department withdrew this exemption in 2007-08, BCCI only paid tax amounting to ₹41.9 crore (US $ 6.2 million) against its tax liability of ₹413 crore (US$61 million) in the 2009-10 financial year.
Unfortunately, the BCCI has been dominated by a group of businessmen and politicians whose sole intention has been to make money hand over fist at the cost of the game. Sadly, this cancer has spread to state cricket associations across the country.
However, while the popularity of the game of cricket has soared primarily because of the quality of our cricketers, the BCCI has not kept in step. Just sample some facts. The Indian Premier League (IPL) the BCCI’s flagship event came under disrepute for betting scandals, resulting in two premium teams getting banned. During this time, the then BCCI chief, N Srinivasan’s son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyyapan was caught with his hands in the cookie jar. Not surprisingly, the son-in-law almost got away with murder, simply because Srinivasan was the powerful BCCI President, the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) chief and the Chennai Super Kings IPL team chief all at the same time! Sadly, it is this formula which has been cut-pasted and used by several state cricket associations where powerful politicians, businessmen and retired bureaucrats have held positions in both the state cricket association and the BCCI at the same time leading to rampant corruption and wrong doings.
Disbursement of funds to state cricket associations is the other malaise. There is no set formula. Blatant adhocism is the rule. Associations which generate votes for the BCCI functionaries and ensure that they remain in power have been given excessive largesse as compared to less significant or less weighty state associations like the North East states and small states.
It is precisely for these above reasons that most of the Lodha committee recommendations make abundant sense. Here are some of the key recommendations. 1) No ministers and bureaucrats can hold any BCCI positions anymore. 2) No BCCI official can be over the age of 70. 3) No person can hold a BCCI post and state cricket association position simultaneously and 4) No cricket official can hold a position for more than three years at a time and nine years in total and 5) The selection committee must comprise of only three, former Test cricket players. The apex court has set a six-month deadline for the BCCI and its associate state associations to implement these changes. Sadly, recommendations like bringing the BCCI under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, legalizing betting and limiting TV advertising between matches did not get the nod.
But how does the BCCI react to all this? Precisely like an errant schoolboy, who refuses to do his homework and has the temerity to bunk school. In fact, the BCCI in open defiance of the Lodha committee recommendations has committed the following acts recently. a) Appointed a five-man selection committee with men who have not played any Test cricket b) Decided to disburse large sums of monies to state associations without following any logic or rationale.
Taking umbrage to this open defiance, the Lodha committee recently mooted the replacement of the entire BCCI top brass with Supreme Court appointed administrators. While the apex court has stayed this suggestion and even acceded to the BCCI request for getting more time to mull over the Lodha committee recommendations, time is clearly running out for the cricket body.
The Lodha strictures could not have come at a better time. Not just for Indian cricket but for the administration of all types of sport in India. It is no secret, that every single sport in our country is being administered in a haphazard, unprofessional manner.
Indian Sport desperately needs to emulate the Cricket Australia management model and the UK Sports model for effective Olympic success to turn over into a new leaf. Presently, the onus squarely lies on the apex court to drive home the Lodha committee recommendations. Countless Indian sports people and sports fans will be eternally grateful to the court for that.
