The relationship between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Committee of Administrators was never likely to be one of bonhomie and friendship. The second one was created to bring into line the other, and that usually ensures there will be no exchange of Christmas cards or birthday greetings on social media.
At best the two sides tolerate each other, at worst they actively get in the other’s way. This, despite the stated commonality of purpose: the greater glory of Indian cricket.
In its fifth status report to the Supreme Court, the CoA recommended that it be handed over the “governance, management and administration” of the BCCI. That was in August last year. It was a dangerous plea.
And now the CoA has decided that the time has come for it to effectively take over. That puts the unelected two-member committee in charge of the richest and most powerful cricketing body in the world. Cricket administration in India continues to observe democracy only in the breach.
The ‘coup’ was accomplished with the same force and sense of entitlement that administrative coups have displayed in the BCCI when the Bindras and Pawars and Mahendras and Srinivasans played the power game. That lot had the backing of elected members, though.
The two sides had specific roles. The BCCI’s was to obey the Supreme Court’s ruling spelt out by the Justice Lodha recommendations. The CoA’s was to oversee the transition in the BCCI, ensure elections were held and legal positions were clarified (through the Supreme Court).
Yet, nearly two years after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the BCCI continues to largely ignore it; amazingly, no one has been arrested for contempt of court, no one has gone to jail for this.
The CoA, since the resignation of half its members — Ramachandra Guha and Vikram Limaye — has indulged in varieties of power play, got involved in the day-to-day business, ruled on matters it has no expertise in, and eroded its own court-given authority by indulging in ego games.
The BCCI, which needed reform, which needed to be brought to heel, is now crying foul, and beginning to garner some public sympathy.
The Supreme Court, unhappy about a small coterie of elected officials running a governing body according to its whims and fancies seems to have allowed an even smaller coterie of two to do the same.
There has been no effort to replace the two men who quit nor has there been an attempt by the two remaining members, Vinod Rai and Diana Eduljee, to co-opt capable people who might be closer to the game and bring more knowledge and experience into the committee.
The result has been an almost childish exhibition of chest-puffing. The acting office-bearers of the BCCI refuse to sign important papers; the CoA bans the secretary from travelling to Sri Lanka for a tournament. One set refuses to call the other set for meetings on appointment or even cricketing matters like a day-night Test at home.
The current set of office-bearers has completed three years in office, but continues to hang on with all the tenacity of its predecessors in the organisation. The CoA’s recent move has by-passed them in all administrative matters. Nothing will move without the CoA’s say so.
This means that the CoA has power without responsibility while the BCCI has responsibility without power. Neither situation is healthy. And they detract from the original purpose — to clean up Indian cricket administration.
With intransigence on one side and inadequacy on the other, the Supreme Court might have to intervene directly. To sort out one mess by creating another is no answer.
If the BCCI’s ego led to the problem initially, the CoA’s sense of its own importance and insistence on getting involved at a granular level has merely exacerbated it. Both sides are fortunate that the national team is superbly unaffected and remains No.1 in the world. Neither has to answer fans’ questions, therefore, and like some Greek tragedy, can continue their battles backstage.
Administrators who behave like the worst of politicians and bureaucrats is not what the game needs at a time when the world is looking to India for solutions for its looming problems. Like the waning popularity of Test match cricket. Or the increasing odds of top teams struggling to keep their flock together.
In recent years, India’s cricket administration has been so inward-looking and focused on retaining power that the big picture is barely acknowledged. The responsibility towards the game itself is low on the list of priorities, and that is disturbing.
The question both sides have to ask is not what can cricket do for them, but the reverse. The BCCI has been allowed to get away with too much; things that should have been sorted out months ago are still hanging in the air. The CoA is losing track of the big picture too. Soon it will be difficult to tell which is which.
