Family game

At a time when, by all accounts, more and more people in the country disdain nepotism and when promises of equal opportunity are emphatically made by popular leaders to audiences filled with fresh and young faces, it appears that the BCCI continues to live in a bubble. They remain aloof to the idea that organisations run by coteries foster complacence and mediocrity. The BCCI also refuses to learn from its past mistakes. The Lalit Modi affair and the N Srinivasan saga were mishaps that happened primarily because Indian cricket was a cosy club of family and friends. Each had looked the other way when a rule was tweaked for individual benefit. They all went back a long way, no one raised the red flags at BCCI meetings. Elections did take place but the loyalty of the core group got passed from father to son. When outsiders are seen as obstructionists, organisations can’t grow. They collectively stop thinking, and are bereft of new ideas.

An Indian cricket official has several perks. They have the power to direct the stream of ample funds — each state unit gets roughly Rs 40 crore annually. In a cricket-crazy country, a match-day ticket has the power to magically open doors. No wonder, then, that influential politicians, lawyers and administrators see this as the preferred career option for their sons. It provides perfect photo-ops with cricket’s swish set, and tremendous goodwill in being seen to be promoting the gladiators pulled out of obscurity by field-level scouting. The cricket board can also be an excellent finishing school, to learn the tricks of the trade, before being launched onto the bigger canvas of politics. Cricket stadiums are a networker’s dream — an evening at the game can exhaust a thick wad of business cards. But power in the hands of a few isn’t good for the game. The new BCCI family photo isn’t flattering. It gives world cricket’s most powerful board the appearance of a fiefdom, rather than the image of a professionally run, transparent and accountable sports organisation.