Being adhesive in a cricket-related scenario only pays when one is at the crease
Being adhesive in a cricket-related scenario only pays when one is at the crease. It’s a lesson the mandarins of BCCI should learn after the Supreme Court approved most recommendations made by the Justice Lodha Panel to cleanse Indian cricket.
Had it not been for the then BCCI president N Srinivasan’s refusal to step down — as a matter of principle — as soon as his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was named in the 2013 spot fixing scandal, the Board would not have had the ignominy of seeing their autonomy being challenged.
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Cricket officials were doing far better than some of their counterparts in other sports where corruption and selectorial bias were part and parcel of administration, but Srinivasan’s parroting of the ‘I’ve done nothing wrong’ line was just not good enough. The court wouldn’t buy it and his fellow administrators went against him only to prove that there are no permanent friends and enemies in cricket administration.
Ajay Shirke (then treasurer) and Sanjay Jagdale (then secretary) quit. Today, Shirke is the Board’s secretary, virtually more powerful and visible than even the president, while Jagdale is still looked upon as the go-to man for cricketing matters.
The Lodha panel’s recommendations are not flawless. The ‘one state, one vote’ diktat doesn’t bode well because all associations in every state are working towards fielding competent teams and unearthing talent so why should they not have a vote at every BCCI election. A historic unit like the Cricket Club of India virtually doesn’t matter anymore in the corridors of cricketing power.
Even the age cap of 70 for officials is not absolutely fair. While no Indian cricket official can function after the age of 70, our country’s political leaders can strut their stuff till the umpire up above declares them out.
All the same, Lodha and his team have sanitised Indian cricket. It would be foolhardy to believe that cricket will be forever clean and free of conflict of interest. Cricket administrators are known to bat well on the most unplayable wickets. They do so every two years in September.
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