The Lodha Committee report has castigated the BCCI in many ways. The hit is so big that the enormity of what has happened to Indian cricket can only be determined after a complete perusal of the report. In order to understand its efficacy, it is essential to ask certain questions. Has it taken a holistic and macro perspective of Indian cricket or has it merely drifted into micro issues, which, without the larger picture being set right, hold minimal weight on their own?
To put things in perspective let us start with the formation of the Board. A society called Board for Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was formed in Chennai to promote cricket in the right spirit of the amateur. The arrival of the professional sent this spirit, and the ethics involved with it for a massive six. If the Committee had to make any dent in the workings of the Board, it was pertinent that the foundation on which the society once stood be revisited.
With the amount of money both legitimate and illegitimate floating around the cricket circuit, the path of morality is a difficult one for the amateur, leave alone a professional hell bent on squeezing every penny out of the game.
Many believe that if the committee has addressed macro issues by visiting the Mission Statement of BCCI and made relevant changes therein. If that is the case then minor irritants like conflict of interest, transparency, corruption and other such nuisances will fall into place on their own.
I can only hope that the vision for BCCI has been redefined, and those goals, both short and long term, have been set with clarity. I also hope that the means and tools for measuring such goals have been made available to both the public through Right to Information (RTI) and through clearly defined paths that embrace the true spirit of the game; each path set out with clarity and transparency to the BCCI.
I believe that the Honourable judges of the Lodha panel have looked in depth into the very heart of Indian cricket and found the clogs that plague the game on a macro level. If they hadn’t done so they would not have banned politicians (Ministers) from holding office or brought an election supervisor into play. A politician can only deliver a political solution to any problem, which at many a given time is a complete compromise of the truth, leave alone a murder of the very spirit of the game. Getting the political honchos out is a decision of immense value with far reaching consequences and I hope that maybe now the many scandals being investigated by the Anti Corruption Wing of the state police will come to their natural conclusion.
Personally I feel the spirit of the game is very deeply ensconced in the Lodha report. A day before the report was going to be tabled; I heard squeaks from a few people that the report could not be enforced.
The fact that it can or cannot is another matter, for now I am pained to see the self-defeating attitude of these people.
Instead of learning from the Lodha panel and cleaning up the game, they would much rather grovel in the muck and sleaze of present day cricket, as long as they get rich.
Whatever happens to cricket, at this very moment I am a proud man, strutting around declaring to the world that we still have pure people in India that are not compromised by the lure of money, nor corrupted by power.
Way to go Lodha Committee, you make us proud to be Indians.
