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Thursday, Apr 29, 2010
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Cricket is a team game

Makarand Waingankar

The BCCI opposed T20 in the ICC before the first World Championship

Financial irregularities and ego clashes are nothing new to sporting federations in the world. In India, practically all the sports federations except cricket focus more on fleecing their own institutions and play politics which even hardened politicians couldn't have imagined. Indian cricket now is becoming the latest entry into this dirty world of politics.

To connoisseurs Twenty20 wasn't the game that did anything to strengthen the base of the game though it had the potential to popularise the game.

The BCCI vehemently opposed T20 in the ICC before the first World Championship. But once we won the championship, the hype damaged the very fabric of the noble game.

Popular brand

Having seen the effect of winning the T20 World Championship over the masses, the BCCI was keen to create a brand. Thus IPL was born.

The marketing was so brilliant thanks to Lalit Modi that the connoisseurs of the game were easily outnumbered.

Till a month ago when the Modi-Tharoor spat took place, everything seemed alright in the IPL governing council.

The masses were convinced IPL was the best thing to have happened to Indian cricket.

And when Kochi and Pune won the bids, there was excitement. Both cities needed the fillip because talent was getting throttled.

But when money pours in billions in sports, it creates more enemies which was witnessed in the AGM of the BCCI in 1987 in Bangalore when the erstwhile Maharaja of Baroda Fathesinhrao Gaekwad walked out of the meeting as nobody was willing to discuss the game for an hour!

Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi admitted he and his colleagues especially the cricketers were loath in questioning the Chairman. When young Ravindra Jadeja was hauled up, the involved franchise was not even reprimanded.

Later, all sorts of allegations were thrown at our superstars. Their crime? They failed to entertain.

It's here that the BCCI should have stepped in, though credit goes to BCCI President Shashank Manohar for reprimanding Modi.

The IPL governing council seemed to have hijacked the constitution of the BCCI. To a layman BCCI looked a sub-committee of the IPL.

Modi is charged for bringing disrepute to the game. If his activities hurt the game, aren't the other members of the governing council equally responsible for it?

Obviously, they either didn't grasp the intricacies of the business deals which were getting inked nor were they interested in knowing it. Flow of dollars perhaps impressed them.

IPL governing council has appointed Baroda's Chirayu Amin as the Chairman.

Business may run in his veins as he is the Chairman of the century-old Alembic company but he is passionate about the game. It's better he gets a representative of the franchises in the panel to put forward their suggestions.

It's their finances which have helped the BCCI. They need to be involved in the decision making.

One thing looks certain. After a decade, Indian cricket again will be overhauled. Vision paper will be submitted to the government.

Accountants will present a rosy picture and Indian cricket, as Tendulkar said, will overcome the hurdles.

Hopefully, all the parties involved may have realised that cricket is a team game and not owned by an individual.

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