Reforms hit for a six

Indeed, little has changed in the Board8217;s administration since its inception in 1928. If, back then, the money was controlled by whichever Maharaja was in charge, today the BCCI President runs his personal fiefdom. And when his term is over, someone else will slip into his shoes and run it exactly the same way. In an organisation where the secretariat shifts from Baroda to Thiruvananthapuram, and could shift again to any other part of the country, the only permanence is in the resistance to change.

Actually, there is a permanent secretariat, where its few paid employees put in 12-hour days. You probably wouldn8217;t know about this; it8217;s a small, dusty room full of files in a corner of Mumbai8217;s Brabourne Stadium. This is the office of Sharad Diwadkar, the BCCI8217;s executive secretary. His job is purely secretarial: file papers, book hotel rooms, buy plane tickets. Hardly the hub of the world8217;s richest cricket-playing nation, so no wonder Diwadkar is quitting his job next week after six years.

The chance, perhaps, for Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya to follow the path of reforms and appoint a CEO, set up a permanent structure. Guess again. 8216;8216;If Mr Nair is not paid does he mean he is anything less than a CEO: he does the same job as the rest of them8217;8217;, an irritated Dalmiya snapped on Thursday at a question put by a journalist. 8216;8216;Being professional does not come from being a paid employee, you need to be professional in the way you work.8217;8217;

What good would a CEO do? Like a company managing director, the CEO would streamline the whole business of cricket and be accountable not only to the board of directors but also to the fans who help keep the game alive and to the media.

No wonder the rest of the cricket world has signed up for this. Says United Cricket Board of South Africa UCBSA CEO Gerald Majola: 8216;8216;We give up our careers to come and run the game. Being a paid professional brings in more commitment.8217;8217; Roger Braithwaite, his counterpart from the West Indies Cricket Board WICB, says: 8216;8216;I don8217;t see how you can run this game in an amateur way. Today the game is more a business, you need professionals.8217;8217;

And the first to realise this fact was 8212; surprise, surprise 8212; Australia, who were forced by the Packer confrontation to go in for a professional structure with a CEO running daily affairs. Now, renamed Cricket Australia, they8217;ve moved a step ahead. This, says CA CEO James Sutherland, gives them a unique advantage. 8216;8216;The name represents what we are. It gives us a brand and positioning in the industry.8217;8217;

Closer home, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have started moving in that direction, both appointing CEOs to run the game in the late 1990s. While Pakistan has former captain Rameez Raja, Anura Tenekoon runs the show in Sri Lanka.

So how has Indian cricket been affected by its fear of change? The most glaring, and memorable example, is the contracts crisis of the past 14-odd months, which remains unresolved. Every other cricket board studied the ramifications of the contract, discussed it with the players or players8217; associations and took a decision. In India, the BCCI first sought to pass the buck to the ICC, then to the previous regime.

A simpler, more regular way our best cricketers are affected is in the pre-tour audits. This is when the board of a touring country sends its team out for a recce; this team returns with full data on venues, hotels, stadiums, climate, etc, which are passed on to the players. Cricket Australia, for example, have already sent their team before the forthcoming tri-series and are now well aware about where they play and what is the distance between hotel and ground. The BCCI has done this just the once, when India went to England last year.

Is there any sign of change? Well, there was a fleeting glimpse of it three years ago when AC Muthiah was president. An industrialist of repute, he laid plans for a permanent secretariat in Mumbai and sought applications for the post of general managers to run different departments. However, his plans were derailed by match-fixing and his subsequent loss in the BCCI elections.