February resolution: Days of democracy return as hegemony out of the window

Some of the recommendations read like a wish list of the beleaguered parties yearning for a more level-playing field.

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Shashank Manohar will now head the five-man steering group set up to conduct the review. (Source: Reuters)

On a fascinating day where he was pulled up by Supreme Court for twiddling thumbs on cleaning up Indian cricket, Shashank Manohar took positive steps to start mopping up the way international cricket is run. He de-fanged the bully that was Indian cricket which in cohorts with England and Australia had threatened to overrun democratic functioning of world cricket and ensure that the cash registers kept ringing almost exclusively for themselves.

It was a day where Manohar sought to replace hegemony with democracy in other cricketing matters as well and earned himself tremendous goodwill in the Anglo-Saxon part of the cricketing world, in particular. Such is the ambition of the clean-up that it even suggests that ICC’s constitution be “reviewed in its entirety”. Some of the recommendations read like a wish list of the beleaguered parties yearning for a more level-playing field. Rahul Dravid, who as captain of IPL franchise of Rajasthan intimately knows the pain of fixing allegations, finds himself in Anti-Corruption Oversight Group which will review and provide independent inputs to tackle corruption. Sri Lanka, who were stripped of its voting rights due to politicisation of their cricket board last year, were reinstated with full-funding rights. USA Association remained suspended although the ICC approved development projects.

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The avarice of the Big Three was understandable in this realpolitik world – ‘we bring you the money, why shouldn’t we keep the chunk of it?’ is pithy summary of its philosophy- but as Manohar said in an interview last year, “it’s nice to say that India (BCCI) will get 22% of the total revenue of the ICC, but you cannot make the poor poorer and the rich richer, only because you have the clout . India generates money because the other countries come and play in India.”

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Manohar will now head the five-man steering group set up to conduct the review, with an aim of putting forward recommendations at the ICC’s annual conference in June. It plans to allow fair access to membership in the important committees for all Full and Associate Member directors, with the sole criteria being the “skill, competence and experience of relevant director”.

In a press release, he pinned the rationale behind this overhaul to enhancing “image and quality of the sport”. “No Member of the ICC is bigger than the other and I am determined to make a meaningful contribution in this regard with support of all the Members,” Manohar said. “We had very purposeful and positive meetings, and the decisions taken clearly reflect that we collectively want to improve the governance in a transparent manner, not only of the ICC but also the Member Boards..”

The momentous events in Dubai will now be followed by an annual conference in June at Edinburgh in Scotland. Even this globe-trotting is part of the democratic nature of the shake-up. “With an aim to improve relationships with the Members and cricket stakeholders from around the world, the Board decided that three of the four meetings of the year will take place in Member countries outside of the UAE.”

If Manohar can go through with these proposals – there is no reason to believe he, and the ICC, won’t – he will go down as one of the few gamechanging administrators cricket has seen. But, as they say the clean-up has to start at home and it will be interesting to see how Manohar reacts to the SC’s reactions.

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