Opinion Can’t do spirit
BCCI lacks conviction and credibility for a clean-up. As court takes charge, it has only itself to blame.
BCCI lacks conviction and credibility for a clean-up. As court takes charge, it has only itself to blame.
Less than a week ago, the Supreme Court offered the BCCI a chance to guard its institutional autonomy and take the lead in setting up a committee to investigate charges of corruption relating to the Indian Premier League. The BCCI should ideally have grabbed this opportunity to wrest the initiative in cleaning up its act, to begin the process of gaining back credibility as the organisation that runs Indian cricket.
After all, the board has not seen such a low before: its chief is assailed by incredibly damaging allegations of conflict of interest and other malpractices, the court has temporarily handed over the running of its affairs to others while choosing to reveal that his name figures in the list of 13 submitted in a sealed cover by the Mudgal committee, and the popular perception is that far too many people, otherwise potential assets to the game, have been compromised by the cosy arrangements coinciding particularly with the reign of N. Srinivasan. In the event, the BCCI chose to stick to its old chummy ways and the panel it announced to investigate the IPL has been, not surprisingly, overruled by the court. The Mudgal committee has been asked to step in and take over the investigation.
In the circumstances, this is a sound course of action. Justice Mudgal has considerable credibility, given his experience in matters related to sport, including cricket, and track record of going about his task with discretion and minimum fuss. On his watch, the facts relating to allegations against the mysterious 13 should be scrupulously investigated. However, the manner in which his services have had to be requisitioned yet again highlights the larger problem with the BCCI.
Its inability to constitute an inquiry panel hints at both its lingering tendency to pull all the strings and its co-option of almost everyone in cricket’s bounded universe. Aside from the allegations of actual corruption in cricket, there is a wider problem of countless conflicts of interest.
Take Ravi Shastri. In another time, a veteran like him should have been an asset on an inquiry panel. And it’s not him alone. The BCCI, by its odious practice of contracting commentators and putting best practices in abeyance for the IPL, has discredited former players like him. Who’ll take charge of restoring trust in its administration?
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