In its 75th year, the BCCI is scoring too many own goals, if you’ll excuse the mixed metaphor, for its own good. Seemingly irrelevant, certainly avoidable, issues that have assumed importance simply because of the Board’s incompetence in handling them.And because, individually and taken together, they reveal a Board that thrives on secrecy, stonewalling and spin.If Zaheer Khan’s injury became headline news during the Asia Cup, it was because of the alarming frequency with which he’d been breaking down, with insufficient time to recover. A system failure that hasn’t yet been acknowledged.Similarly, Pappey Bhai the Mystery Masseur is symptomatic of the ad hoc, chalta hai manner in which the richest national cricket body is run.This story isn’t about Pappey Bhai’s merits or faults as a masseur; indeed, the players swear by him and if he’s good enough for them, he’s good enough for us. The story lies in how and why he was first granted access to the team and then, equally summarily, dismissed by BCCI secretary SK Nair in full public view.By his public show of anger at a Colombo hotel on Saturday, Nair was apparently trying to tell us that Pappey Bhai’s cosy little deal with the players was illegal and, now he was in town, the game was up.Unfortunately, all Nair did was to himself to be a man either so horribly out of touch with his team and management that he doesn’t know what’s going on — for 15 days! — when even journalists sitting in India could see what was happening. Or a man who knew everything, including the fact that sooner or later Pappey Bhai would be outed by the media, and so tried to make the best of a bad situation.More importantly, it shows that neither Nair nor Dalmiya — who heads the ACC, which organised the Asia Cup — enjoys good communications with the senior team management, including manager, coach and captain. All three knew of Pappey’s movements and presumably all three know Dalmiya’s mind well enough to keep him informed.If only Nair’s talents stopped at histrionics. They include doublespeak too. On Tuesday, he told PTI: ‘‘We were not aware of the presence of this unauthorised person with the team till reaching there (Colombo). Being the secretary of the BCCI I cannot remain a mute spectator after having seen this man with the team wearing the India colours. After all we are also concerned with the security of the team members.’’This, about a man who had been with the Indian team for the entire Pakistan tour and who received a letter of commendation for his services from tour manager and Nair’s colleague Ratnakar Shetty. If he wasn’t a security threat then, why was he one in Sri Lanka?And if he is seen as a threat, why does Dalmiya refer to this as a ‘‘trivial matter’’, as he said on Monday? Surely it is serious enough to merit the BCCI lodging a complaint into the security surrounding the players? And an investigation of how Pappey Bhai got his ‘‘access all areas’’ pass, metaphorically if not literally?It is unlikely any of these questions will be answered, because it is not the BCCI’s practice to disclose information about its workings. But whatever Dalmiya says, this is serious stuff — because Colombo is a bookies’ haven, because Pappey Bhai’s past has not been checked out, because there is just too much money in the game these days to take risks.And because we have a team that’s clean, talented and proud to play for the country. It is the BCCI’s responsibility to see that does not change.
