Ranjisinhji, Duleepsinji, the rajas of Vizianagram, Cooch Behar, Patiala—Indian cricket is redolent of such princely names. Indeed many of the country’s cricketing trophies perpetuate the memories of these patrons, who played the game as much for pleasure as to disdain other native pursuits in the manner of foreign elites. India has long ceased to be a conglomeration of petty kingdoms, but the spirit lives on yet in netas and wannabe rajas thronging clubhouses and pavilions.And it’s catching on. Even the politically correct leftist is now putting aside the starched dhoti for soiled flannels, and while Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s foray in the Cricket Association of Bengal through the proxy of a police officer has raised some heat, the West Bengal chief minister is only one in a long, long line of politicians who have inveigled their way into administrative panels in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the state associations.Cricket, sports indeed, has a curious fascination for politicians. They give their all to end up with the winning votes in organisational elections and have pictures taken of themselves with triumphant raised fists—the closest perhaps many of them will come to the indescribable joy of having scored a first-rate century or taken a five-for. It makes people like Sudesh Mahato, home minister of Jharkhand who lost to IPS officer Amitabh Choudhury in the bid to become JSCA president in May, say, ‘‘I will contest again.’’ BCCI elections are more often decided in party rooms than in dingy poll halls. And three state associations have seen the state administration intervening in no uncertain terms. While in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh tried to gain control of the UPCA in a political faceoff with Congress MP Rajiv Shukla, in Himachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Virdharbha Singh wanted to settle scores with former chief minister P K Dhumal, whose son Anurag Thakur headed the state’s cricket association. In Rajasthan, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje took over the RCA by passing an ordinance that made regulation of sports bodies the state’s responsibility.It is nobody’s case that only cricketers make good cricket admininstrators. Some politicians have served cricket’s cause well. But with a myriad interests to guard, most politicians can often come in the way of establishing norms that can do the sport good. It can hardly be the politician’s lot to quiescently accept objective advice or supplant cronies with professionals.And there is the question of temptations. After all, there is a lot of money in cricket. The BCCI is the richest sports body in India, its last accounts showing a profit of Rs 30 crore—which many feel does not reflect the whole truth. It pays its cricketers well. It doles out Rs 1 crore a year to the state associations to promote cricket. The BCCI’s global media rights went for $612 million for four years. It has a Rs 313 crore 4-year team sponsorship deal with Sahara and a Rs 196 crore 5-year kit deal with Nike. The entire cricket industry in India, at a conservative estimate, stands at Rs 1,200 crore.That’s a lot of money. But is money a lure to politicians, especially the chief ministers and Central ministers—who are custodians of much much higher sums? Okay, so cricket offers a largesse that can come in handy to smaller politicians (a lot of them are involved in the BCCI’s multi-crore rupee deals, Goa’s then deputy CM Dayanand Narvekar was even charge-sheeted for printing forged tickets in 2001), but that does not explain the politician’s dalliance with sports administration in athletics or volleyball or weightlifting, among others. These organisations hardly have the financial strength to engender the cynical jostling for positions that has marked the recently fights for BCCI presidentship. And for sure, it’s not love for the sport that draws them to the stadia.Perhaps, one has to harken to the days of the maharajas to get a hint of why the politician wants to be the president, secretary or an executive committee member of a cricket body. It is, for want of an evil word, patronage. Being an administrator puts the politician in the position of being able to dole out favours: hand out passes for one-day internationals, send cronies on foreign tours as managers, get VIP kin selected for representative teams, influence a decision in construction contracts. No mistake, his cut is there, but the greater pleasure comes from having the clout to do something, from having power just beyond his boundary.
