Life is a pursuit to seek an ideal way of living. It encompasses all activities we indulge in, where the line between private and public dissolves to create a space where we do no “wrong”.
Yet, in real life, this concept of perfection, as our lived experience teaches us, is a mirage. The more one chases it the more distant it becomes. These life lessons, with some rare exceptions, hold true for an individual as well as the collective.
From a sports perspective, this whole grandiose idea emanates from the belief that it being a harmless activity, therefore no one should find the need to flout the rules and regulations that govern all its disciplines.
Alas, the truth here is as bitter as is the real-life experience of chasing the ideal way of living. If some players cheat to win, even if it is not so widespread as many would want to believe, the worst culprits are the administrators, who manipulate to stay in power and enjoy the perks that go with the job.
This affliction that debilitates the sporting administrative set-up is a world-wide phenomenon though it may not be wrong to say, India could be one of the leading nations to have perfected this art of “self-promotion” above everything else.
India’s sporting federations, from archery to athletics, from shooting to wrestling, are all mired in controversies where even officials have gone to jail on charges of corruption as happened post-2012 Commonwealth Games that were held in India.
One discipline that is projected as an example of how to run it efficiently is cricket, where India is among the leading nations of the world, be it in generating money, popularity or even performance.
However, despite this tag of being “super-efficient” the Indian cricket board has from time to time thrown up enough evidence of maleficence that has shamed the country.
Cricket today is a multi-million dollar industry, propelled by its popularity in India, which is the driving engine behind its financial prosperity. Unlike any other sport in India, cricket is not only self-sufficient, helping some of the leading players earn crores of rupees a month, it makes even its administrators household names.
The late Jagmohan Dalmiya or a Lalit Modi, N Srinivasan and at present Diana Edulji and Vinod Rai, are names as well known as some of the superstars of cricket.
It is a mix of clout that they wield being cricket administrators and the importance of running one of the most popular enterprises in the country, that probably makes them stick to their positions like a leach that won’t leave till it sucks the last ounce of blood from its prey.
There was hope of a clean-up created by the judiciary in 2016, when a “fixing” scandal broke out in the Indian Premier League.
The then Board president and business tycoon, Srinivasan’s son-in-law was caught betting on his own IPL team, the Chennai Super Kings. A cover-up was initiated by the Board president which was exposed by a judicial probe.
The Supreme Court, which had taken cognisance of the issue, set up a three-member judicial commission that prepared an ideal blueprint of how to run the cricket administration.
The commission, known as the Lodha panel, recommended wide-sweeping reforms that, when implemented, would take care of most ills afflicting the Board, be it conflict of interest, individual or group hegemony, financial irregularities, etc.
In 2017, the SC approved the recommendations and ordered them to be implemented in toto.
It is a shame that even after two years, despite the courts monitoring its implementation, a resolution seems nowhere in sight.
As of now, we are being told that the elections to the Board, according to the provisos of the Lodha panel, will be held in October this year.
Given the manner in which the CoA, that was appointed as an interim arrangement to get the reforms implemented, have usurped Board powers, it is unlikely that we may see any positive change.
What was the pursuit of an ideal, backed by the Supreme Court, who in their wisdom appointed persons of integrity as administrators for ushering in a change, is now a nightmare whose end is nowhere in sight.
Academician, scholar, writer and historian Ramachandra Guha, who was among the four original administrators, quit within months of his appointment, unhappy and disappointed at the manner in which his colleagues were functioning.
They seemed more interested in wielding the enormous power that was suddenly theirs than implementing the reforms, Guha in his resignation letter had warned.
Instead of four, we now have three administrators, one bureaucrat in Vinod Rai, a former India woman cricketer in Edulji and a late entrant in former Army official, Ravi Thodge.
The first two, just like any sports administrator in the country, have had many spats, disagreeing with each other on many issues that show them in poor light and the third can be seen at every important cricketing event at the Board’s expenses.
There have been allegations of their unnecessary interference in routine issues and even Chief Executive Officer Rahul Johri has had to face allegations of “sexual misconduct” that a probe committee dismissed as false, though doubts over the manner in which the probe was conducted remains.
In short, the panacea has so far proved as disastrous as the disease itself. RM Lodha, the former CJI, who after a one-year-long research and interaction with all stakeholders, recommended these sweeping reforms, is a disgusted man today.
He has publicly expressed his displeasure and even anger not only at the delay but even the dilution of some of his suggestions.
It has made no difference. The pull of power and pelf is far greater than transparent ethical conduct. This just goes to show that even the perfect boundaries of the legal framework are too small when it comes to cricket administration. The pursuit of an ideal is still a mirage.