The game of cricket tests different facets of a player’s character. In a queer turn of events, qualities hitherto not demonstrated will be under scrutiny when the Supreme Court-appointed committee of administrators gets down to getting a headless BCCI back in shape. The court zeroed in on former CAG Vinod Rai, cricket enthusiast and historian Ramachandra Guha, Infrastructure Development Finance Company MD Vikram Limaye, and former Indian women cricket captain Diana Edulji. They would interact with Rahul Johri, CEO of BCCI, for supervision and functioning of the cricket board. The first two names are not surprising because the court hinted it would pick people adept at handling financial intricacies and irregularities. Rai, who dealt with the 2G and coal allocation scams, and Limaye, a chartered accountant, who has served in many government committees, thus fit the bill.
However, Guha, author of the book on the origin and development of Indian cricket, A Corner of a Foreign Field, and Edulji, the left-arm spinner of the seventies and eighties known for speaking her mind, are likely to be on a new pitch as they set about implementing the Lodha recommendations, interpreting court orders and getting a body of possibly hostile members to act against their wish. As of now, most BCCI members are happy with the committee. They feel something is at least better than nothing to run cricket.
The new team will also have to have to bring transparency in the board’s opaque administrative, financial and legal procedures. They will also have to consider the players’ interests and selection processes. But by and large, this move should be welcomed, since it promises to end years of corruption, high-handedness and lawlessness in the body that ruled Indian cricket. It will test those entrusted, but having seen BCCI mandarins make a royal mess of it, the Indian cricket fan wouldn’t mind giving them a chance to haul things back on track.