Over the last decade and particularly since the advent of the Indian Premier League last year and the Champions League, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has established itself as one of the wealthiest national sporting bodies in the world. Sadly for Indian cricket, the adage that some people have more money than sense has been proved once and for all.
Indian cricket fans like to puff out their chests and boast that without them world cricket would be doomed. Since approximately 70 per cent of the world cricket revenue flows from India, that is no idle boast. But if world cricket depends over much on the BCCI, then the health of the game looks dire indeed.
In the span of two consecutive One-day Internationals the billion dollar baby that is the BCCI has made itself into the sporting world’s laughing stock. This at a time when the national side is celebrating being anointed as the number one team in the world, at least for the time being. And ranked number two in ODIs.
But instead of celebrations, the Indian cricket fraternity needs to face the bitter truth that the BCCI is dysfunctional apparently beyond repair. This is evident from the fact that it refuses to learn from its mistakes. During the inaugural IPL 2008 season, the lights went out at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on numerous occasions. Of course, committees were formed and enquiries commissioned to find out what went wrong. But in India as is well known by now, commissions and enquiries are a blatant waste of time and money.
Sure enough the Cricket Association of Bengal has formed a seven-member committee to look into the recent fiasco during the fourth ODI against Sri Lanka last week. Its results will never be known, at least not to the general public.
The only question remaining after Sunday’s disgrace at the Feroze Shah Kotla is how many members will constitute the inevitable Delhi and Districts Cricket Association enquiry committee! If buck-passing were an Olympic event, India would surely be assured of gold every four years! The shame of the Capital’s cricket association being unable to provide over the last few years the most basic necessity of a playable pitch has once again confirmed that it the most incompetent of the many state associations that make up the BCCI. And that is saying something!
A vast sum was spent on building stands and extending the capacity at what traditionally has been the most pathetic international stadium in the country. Much of this funding came from the Board’s cash cow, the IPL. But the pitch was neglected.
The rot within the BCCI is nothing new. Indeed, it is the same story with every sport in India. But with Indian cricket now flaunting itself as the 800-pound gorilla in the room, the focus is on it like never before particularly with the next World Cup (50 overs) to be staged jointly by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka barely 18 months away. The raging debate for sometime now in cricket circles is the future of Test cricket. To attend five consecutive days of a cricket match what spectators require are basic creature comforts.
Fanatical as they are, Indian spectators will brave sub-standard conditions for an ODI or 20/20 matches which are over in a day. But to expect them to go though this ordeal for the duration of a Test match is asking for too much.
Cricket matches in England, South Africa and Australia in particular are family affairs with a picnic atmosphere and even outdoor barbeques in South Africa.
In India on the other hand getting past the obnoxious security, braving the elements without a roof over one’s head, negotiating the filthy toilets, stomaching the disgraceful food on offer and exorbitant prices to boot all go into make a trip to watch cricket an ordeal rather than a pleasure. It is not only the spectator at the ground who is being taken for a ride. With TV channels having to fork out increasingly ludicrous sums of money for telecast rights, their desperation to make a profit has made watching cricket on TV in India a nightmare. Ad breaks between every over and fall of wickets is an invention of the late Australian tycoon Kerry Packer and his Channel Nine. But it is only in India where the commentators are cut off in mid-sentence at the end of an over or when a wicket falls as the producers rush to slot in another ad. Sometimes the first ball of a new over is missed and the manner in which the screen is eaten up with still ads even with play in progress is an affront to Indian cricket fans.
It is also no secret that TV commentary in India has turned into a whitewash job of the BCCI and a PR spree particularly during the IPL with the Indian board having the final say as to who the commentators will be. It has been a sad spectacle to see some of the legends of Indian cricket gagged by the Board as they are now on their payrolls.
Only the BCCI could run a virtual Stalinist regime while at the same time putting the world’s capitalists to shame with their money-minting ways! Just how valued a place at the high table of Indian cricket is today was demonstrated again earlier this month during the elections to the Rajasthan Cricket Association, won by a Congress bigwig.
Lalit Modi was defeated in his backyard for the second time in six months. Yet Modi remains in the top echelons of the BCCI as he was handed the title of vice-president of the Punjab Cricket Association on a platter by his chief benefactor and supremo of Punjab cricket, I S Bindra. His position as Commissioner of the IPL too appears secure.
Such are the machinations of Indian cricket politics that Modi is now seen patching up with Indian cricket’s former strongman, Jagmohan Dalmiya whose ouster Modi engineered during the last elections! Virtually every state cricket association today has a politician at the helm of affairs with Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar set to take over the reins of the International Cricket Council next year. And BJP leader Arun Jetley as president of the DDCA finds himself the target of Congress politicians demanding his resignation on moral grounds following the pitch fiasco!
In this naked battle for power and pelf it is the game that is the ultimate sufferer. And the rest of the cricket world can only look on with a mixture of dismay and contempt. As for the viewer and spectator, who cares? After all, in India the customer is never right!.
About the author:
Gulu Ezekiel is a senior sports journalist. The updated edition of his book, ‘Sachin: The Story of the World’s Greatest Batsman’ is to be released by Penguin India next month.