CHENNAI: For reasons best known to them, those running the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) keep squabbling. If one expected things to change after the arrival of the Committee of Administrators (CoA), it has got worse in the last few months. Diana Edulji’s latest outburst on who should have presented the IPL trophy is an addition to this growing list.
A member of the CoA, who in the past accused committee chief Vinod Rai of taking important decisions without consulting her, Edulji has made her latest displeasure public through a statement, saying that acting BCCI president CK Khanna has shown ‘disregard for protocol’ when it comes to handing over trophies at the end of a series or competition. She accuses him of having double standards while attending such presentations.
To cut a long story short, Khanna gave away the trophy after the IPL final in Hyderabad on Sunday. Edulji argues it should not have been him, because he had refused to perform the same duty after the last match of the India-Australia series in New Delhi in March. Following that, the president of the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association was given the honour.
“He (Khanna) had shown disregard for the protocol and an office bearer of a state association was allowed to give the trophy away and hence for the IPL final, COA members should give the trophy (sic). This was because the acting president had shown disregard to the office of the president of the BCCI,” says Edulji in her statement.
Khanna refused to comment. But his role in this can’t be overlooked since it was him who insisted that following convention, the acting BCCI head should be presenting the trophy.
More than who is right or wrong, the question here is whether this should at all become a topic of public debate between officials occupying eminent positions in a reputed organisation. There are many issues to be addressed. The task of implementing the Supreme Court’s reform orders is far from complete. And yet, the officials are bickering over a trivial matter, where neither the subject nor the nature of words used befit their stature.
This becoming the norm is the bigger concern. In every organisation involving a body of decision-makers, there are differences in opinion. If handled with maturity and with the good of the organisation in mind, they don’t become fodder for public consumption.
But in the current set-up of BCCI, administrators have fought openly over issues like appointment of coach and allegations of sexual harassment against the CEO. Even Mithali Raj’s outburst after being left out of the T20 XI became a tussle between them.
Other than damaging the already tarnished image of the board, the officials are sullying their own image by doing this.
Watching from a distance with a quiet sense of fulfilment are the BCCI members. Each sentence uttered in this war of words lends credence to their claim that the administrators don’t have it in them to do what they have been asked to.