BCCI and Indian cricket: Conflict of Interest

[dev.goswami]

Is that a joke? :hehe:

NO

[Ultimate_Game]

To the OP. BCCI & Indian Cricket: Conflict of Interest is not the right term. the term is Apathy. BCCI doesn't gives a rat's ass about preparation for any Indian tour. Atleast with the Tontee Tontee world cup somebody could argue that the players will be match fit having played a lot of T20 - they are not acclimatised to the Caribbean weather and surface is another matter. We've picked Ravindra Jadeja who is going to go into this World cup without any cricket under his belt for the last couple of months.

I was being politically correct by using the term "conflict of interest" but yes BCCI's track record leads one to the conclusion that the actual term should be "apathy". After all who can forget India's last tour of Aus where India only played one practice game and which too was rained out. Can you believe one 3 day game is enough to get used to Australian conditions and that too when it's supposed to be one of the most important tours! And as expected India lost the 1st test as expected due to not being match-fit in australian conditions. It was a great opportunity to win a series in Aus and as the rest of the test results revealed had our team managed to get a couple of 1st class games under their belt they could very well have won the series. But of course it's only us who have to suffer as the BCCI is least bothered and I am sure same thing will happen again when we tour SA or Aus next.

[SJS50]

Thank God they fought

By Shekhar Gupta Editor-in-Chief Indian Express and one of India's most respected journalists. 17th April 2010

At a time when the dominant sentiment on the IPL was breathless adulation, following its “success†in South Africa, this paper took the rather unpopular position that the picture was not so bright when seen in its entirety. The brazen manner with which the tournament was moved to South Africa did not just reek of arrogance, it did a great deal of disservice to India, still recovering from 26/11. It strengthened the impression that India was still unsafe for major sporting events, almost as bad as Pakistan (since that attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore had already put that country on the blacklist). This newspaper stuck its neck out and even stated, editorially, that it almost amounted to an anti-national act. But the captains of the IPL were not to be deterred. They moved the circus, politicians, media, even bureaucrats from many states to South Africa for one big party. Personifying the hubris was, of course, none else than IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi. A dedicated camera (“Modicam†as it came to be known backstage) followed his every move. He signed autographs like a superstar. He also held televised ceremonies in South African schools where he handed over donation cheques, cheered on by (mostly black) children. Riding on the success of the IPL, Modi had become one big sports and entertainment phenomenon, a kind of Jerry Maguire and Hugh Hefner rolled into one. In the process he and his IPL bent, twisted and often rewrote all rules of sports administration and even conventional business. He was getting away with it because “everybody†was in it. There was nobody left to raise a question. All media, TV, print, were in awe of him. My favourite media moment of that period is the question a TV anchor asked him, “The IPL in South Africa has gone so well. So just how proud do you feel about it?†Modi blushed and blabbered on like a spoilt five-year-old just told by his grandmom he is the best in the world. It was in that heady phase that I tried to draw attention to certain emerging problems that, I said, may bedevil Indian cricket in times to come (‘Conflicts of cricket’, National Interest, June 20, 2009). It drew immediate protests and disapproval, not merely from the usual suspects but also from many well-meaning cricket enthusiasts who felt that I was nit-picking, unable to accept the success of so innovative a venture without the usual, chronic Indian Express scepticism. And what were some of the things I underlined about these emerging conflicts of interest? That, for example, the same person (N. Srinivasan of India Cements) was secretary of the BCCI and also the owner of Chennai Super Kings. Further, that K. Srikkanth, as chief national selector, one of the most powerful men in India, was also the brand ambassador of Chennai Super Kings. That using the clout of the IPL, the BCCI had been able to acquire powers over the media that even Indira Gandhi did not have during the Emergency. She censored you, but she did not appoint permanent editors at our newspapers. The cricket board, on the other hand, has contracted Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar, two of India’s finest cricketers, and any channel that may win the broadcast rights for any cricket event where India is playing has no choice other than having these two on the commentary team, giving the Board the incredible power to have its own people cover its own activities. As the hubris and arrogant display of disregard for “log kya kehenge†(what will people say), this has been equalled only now by the shareholders of Rendezvous, including that “marketing whiz†from Dubai, Sunanda Pushkar, getting 25 per cent equity in the Kochi franchise, “undilutable in perpetuityâ€! That is not a privilege even the founders of Infosys gave themselves. I was not being a spoilsport last year. I was only raising the red-flag that a brilliant success in rolling cricket, Bollywood, big bucks and Indian city-folks’ desperate need for outdoor fun and entertainment was now in danger of becoming a clubby, patronage-driven, cabal-owned property that could bring disrepute to cricket, and India. The central point was, and is, that the laws of conflict of interest must be sacrosanct in sport and business, as they must be in public life. It was almost exactly around this time that Shashi Tharoor stepped into our politics, a fabulous election victory behind him. He said often that he came after decades in a professional, global environment, and wanted to be a part of the change in India. Many of us were even convinced of his sincerity, in spite of his accent that sounded so foreign in an India now mostly run by HMTs (Hindi Medium Types) who speak 16 dialects of the English language rather than the Oxbridge elite under whose charge Tharoor left it when he went for his UN job. Tharoor made news with his tweets and other media controversies, but each time, as he defended himself, in a manner so brilliantly articulate, there was no missing the tone of hurt: “India deserves better and, frankly, so do I†being the most breathtaking of those lines. Of course it took an enterprising reporter of The Hindu to tell us a couple of days later that the line, which he had disowned and accused the media of putting into his mouth, was a verbatim lift from one of his own books on Indian foreign policy. He made a dramatic, dismissive exit from that press conference, hoping that all of us would get scared, if not shamed, for our lack of gratitude towards somebody who had given up a flourishing professional career to dedicate his life to our service, particularly when he was here to make a difference.And how did he make that difference? The moment he saw the IPL and Indian cricket, did he try to challenge or change the system of conflicts of interest and patronage that he is now so outraged about? He, instead, sensed an opportunity and joined the boys with a sense of entitlement. He can today abuse Modi, call him a thief, scoundrel, his OSD may describe him as a convicted drug peddler. But until the stuff hit the fan last Sunday, he was thick as thieves with him, discussing all kinds of things, from the interests of the Kochi franchisees he was “merely mentoringâ€, to Modi’s alleged request to block the visa of a 23-year-old South African beauty queen. Tharoor can now deny till he goes red in the face the insinuation from the other end that he allegedly advised them that the only way he could help block the visa was if someone filed a police complaint against her. But if he, instead, sent Modi a curt note as a minister as “propah†as his accent should have done, saying that such requests are not entertained by the minister’s office and can you please go to hell, it has not been shared with us. This column is not the place to describe, dissect or assess the various IPL shenanigans now surfacing. For that, keep track of the front page of this newspaper where the finest team of investigative reporters in India has been breaking one startling story after another every morning. And will continue to do so. It is also too early to say who is innocent and who is guilty or, rather, whose air of injured innocence is less fake than the other’s. But one thing you know for sure. That until last Sunday, Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor were the best of friends talking business, even if each claims that his interest was entirely pro-bono, and they were talking models and their visas. One week is a very long time in not just politics but also in the business of cricket. We have to be grateful to these two truly brilliant, successful but hubrisdriven individuals that they turned on each other, from being hand in glove. This has given India a fine opportunity to clean up the conflicts of interest in cricket. And, if Sonia Gandhi and the prime minister so wish, a little bit of conflict of interest in our politics as well. If it finally happens, we will have to be grateful to Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor who use a similar idiom in the conduct of their respective businesses, even if they speak with vastly different accents.

[SJS50]

This is an article Shekhar Gupta had written last year (after the end of IPL 2) and to which he refers to the article I posted earlier.

Conflicts of cricket

Shekhar Gupta Indian Express Saturday , Jun 20, 2009

Let me first state my biases, as one more cricket-crazy Indian, upfront. I am an unabashed admirer of the IPL and do not believe, for one moment, that it was either responsible for India’s early exit from the ICC World T20, or that it has in any way contributed to a decline in the standards of Indian cricket. Quite to the contrary, the IPL has brought a new zest to it. It produced more young talent in one year than our domestic cricket would have normally done in five. It has also fired the imagination of so many talented young cricketers by spreading the spoils much wider, to a pool of nearly a hundred, rather than just the 20-odd at the top in the past. It has brought about an improvement in all aspects of Indian cricket, something the entire cricketing world was acknowledging till the other day. In fact when the same Indian team was casually topping the 300-mark in the ODI series in New Zealand earlier this year, many, including Kevin Pietersen famously, said that Indians had raised their game to an entirely different level, thanks to the IPL. The IPL has also monetised the game of cricket as no idea has done, even the advent of other short versions of the game in the past three decades. What is even better, these new riches are enriching, besides cricketers, the media, sponsors, event managers, the hospitality industry and so on. For a game dying because of spectator apathy this has been a brilliant economic stimulus with pretty effective trickle-down. What’s even better, this came as a most welcome tonic at a time when Indian cricket was in the dumps, and a terrific revival followed. So my complaints are entirely as a partisan. More than complaints, these are words of caution from somebody who enjoys the game from outside the formidable cricketing establishment. Success brings not just complacency, but also arrogance, an “anything-goes†mindset; in circumstances where oversight is poor or non-existent and where the establishment, even regulatory bodies, is fully compromised, it would take no time for what look today like minor weaknesses or mere aberrations to grow into larger problems. Further, the cricketing establishment could smugly expect to be able to sweep them all under the carpet now. But that will only work as long as Indian cricket is winning everything. When it loses, as it did in this T20, the same issues will come back to haunt the cricketing establishment, and even cause disarray in Indian cricket, particularly if more losses follow. The issue, for example, is not that so many players suffered injuries, or got “fatigued†playing the IPL. Professionals will take what playing opportunity comes their way and have to watch their fitness. The issue is, if they were carrying injuries, why did the selection committee not take a call on it? Today, the BCCI will be blamed for this generally. But soon enough, particularly if poor performance continues, questions will start getting raised about a very nice guy like Krishnamachari Srikkanth who, as chairman of selectors, has one of the most powerful jobs in the country. Are you conscious yet of the fact that he is also a brand ambassador for the Chennai Super Kings team which, in turn, is owned by N Srinivasan, who also happens to be the secretary of the BCCI? All this may be entirely meritocratic, but hasn’t the cricket establishment heard anything about conflict of interest? If the BCCI, a non-profit “societyâ€, is supposed to supervise and regulate Indian cricket and also the IPL — which is its prime, and most profitable, product — should its office-bearers own teams in it? And can their brand ambassadors (on their payroll) be national selectors? The Chennai team may be the most obvious example of conflict of interest, but there are so many others, in so many franchises. Sporting bodies around the world, even the venerable International Olympic Committee, are exclusive clubs. But the BCCI, now mostly fuelled by the arrogance and money-power brought in by the IPL, is setting new standards that may not strike you as so brazen if you are inside the “tentâ€, or in the cricket establishment’s “dugoutâ€. But if you see them as an outsider, as an ordinary fan and as a public commentator with no commercial interest whatsoever, but with a great, great vested interest in free comment, they suck. The BCCI has now come to acquire powers over media coverage on its own doings and performance that nobody in India has ever been able to arrogate to themselves, not under Mayawati, or Sanjay Gandhi during the Emergency. During the Emergency, the government censored our newspapers, it got some inconvenient editors fired, but it did not appoint its own employees as our editors. Look at what the BCCI has achieved. It has hired Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri, two of India’s most-loved former cricketers and commentators, on its own “commentary†team and irrespective of which channel wins the bid for covering cricket in India, it has to use these — in this case the BCCI’s — commentators. Incidentally, both are also members of the IPL governing council. In fairness, you have to state that almost all cricketing boards would insist on clearing the list of commentators on their sports channels. But I do not believe any carries its own hired, contract-bound voices to cover its own activities. To an old-fashioned media-person and a public commentator like this columnist, this is shocking, institutionalised censorship. You want to know how this censorship works? Find out why nobody ever saw any footage of Bhajji slapping Sreesanth in the last edition of the IPL. Because the BCCI had control over the Sony cameras and it seems the footage was destroyed. Would Sharad Pawar have managed to do it if an MP slapped another in Parliament? Cricket, even more than politics, is a game played in public, for the public; it’s not a private party, and nobody should have the power to censor it. A little self-correction, therefore, will be useful for the BCCI itself. Or there will be no questions raised as aberrations are smuggled in, shorter boundaries to make for more sixes (or “maximumsâ€), strategy breaks after 10 overs when even dowdy Test cricket has them after 15 overs or an hour — all to bring in some more money. Both bring down the quality and intensity of the game, the very factors that made ODIs better crowd-pullers than Tests, and T20 more than ODIs. Or the really ridiculous sight of team owners hanging around the team dugouts, something you would never see in serious football leagues. Sharad Pawar has to figure out at some point soon that his BCCI is the guardian of Indian cricket, and not just the proud parent of its favourite and richest offspring, the IPL. Because he could get away with it while Indians are winning. But whatever the veil of secrecy, the physio’s injury reports and other such will start leaking the moment the team loses and the same public opinion that endorses you will turn on you. Being a politician, particularly one who has played his hand rather poorly of late, Sharad Pawar should understand this better than most.

[Chandan]

Actually Indian cricket needs a big clean up where they need to get rid of politicians as head of the state associations, need to hire professionals and have a manadatory wing for cricket-director who will look after the games' aspect, finalising shedules well in advance, keeping an eye on talent searching and seeing that corruption doesn't seep at the lower levels and a good talent seamlessly keeps on finding its way up. Until BCCI becomes fully professional like CA, we can keep hearing about such scandals like we are having just now and the various conflict of interest as well.

[SJS50]

Ha ha. Looks like the sh** has finally hit the ceiling :)

[Roshanrocks]

there is no ceiling remaining professor :hatsoff:

[goose]

I've always said the IPL is like any other Ponzi scheme where almost everyone has a vested interest in it's success. At the moment, it's supporters speak of 'demand' being high. There is cricketing demand by way of the vast crowds coming through the turnstiles. Nobody knows how or when, but that demand can collapse literally overnight. The whole saga with Modi reminds me of the SEC charging Goldman Sachs with fraud.

[riya]

But do we need practice matches after playing in the high kwality league.

[SJS50]

I am not that excited by the T-20 format and its "close-finishes" or run-rates but this whole drama unfolding sure has me excited. It beats the best of crime-thrillers :) One only hopes that having found a couple of scape goats and calmed the fury of political opponents (both in parliament and in the cricket control board) every one doesn't just go back to "work as usual". That is a very likely scenario for no one really wants to rock the boat. Everyone seems to have a vested interest in it including the electronic media. Watch the Indian news channels and you can easily see who is batting for Congress and who for the opposition; who for Lalit Modi and who for Shashi Tharoor. But this is not about the Indian political interests. That is what the public needs to understand. The opposition wants to use it to beat the governing party with. The BCCI honchos want to use it to settle personal scores. But this is much bigger than that for the rot is much deeper. To allow them to get away with the sacking of Tharoor and the impending departure of Mr Modi is not a solution to the basic problem. Unfortunately, no one is interested in resolving that and the public just wants to get back to the cheer leaders, the drum beat and the noise of the IPL tamasha without wanting to be bothered about the cancer that is gripping Indian cricket caused by the heady mix of money, politics and glamour and the power that comes from each. There are unsavoury elements involved with all four elements and it is this that needs to be set right. Not by Government getting into running the sport, or by banning this or that form of the sport. It calls for an oversight, transparency, a watchful but operationally hands off regulator and the treatment of IPL (and other such business enterprises) as we do with other regular business enterprises. Mr Modi (and his ilk) cant be treated as some business whiz kids and then when it comes to their financial affairs they be treated differently from regular businessmen.

• Let IPL pay taxes the way other businesses do.
• Let there be no tax exemptions be available to them because they are related to sports activities.
• Let their accounts be made public the way those of corporate bodies are.
• If necessary ask the SPV (special purpose vehicles) that are formed to own the teams be made Public Limited Companies.
• Let BCCI go public and stop the charade of "honorary" office bearers running a multi billion dollar enterprise for 'gratis'.
• Let all the checks and balances of corporate governance apply to the running of cricket administration.
• Let the public invest in BCCI as well as the owners so that they are genuinely concerned about where the money is going.

Lets do all that and show that we are really keen to put our house in order and not just bored by another of our periodic scandals and in a hurry to get back to "business-as-usual"

[mastana]

But do we need practice matches after playing in the high kwality league.

Atleast 1 practice match is necessary to acclimatise to the conditons. But we have our first match against Afghanistan. They might take it as a practice match.

[Chandan]

But do we need practice matches after playing in the high kwality league.

Of course we do Riya. And how high quality these league games are, was clear last year when not even one of the three teams qualified in semis of the CL. Secondly, practice matches are played to get acclamatised, to get a feel of the pitches and conditions there, not to get just the match practice of that format. I know that you are being sarcastic, but it is for the hundreds of ignorant IPL fans who think practice in IPL (where number of things are fixed) is enough for the preparation of T20 WC!! PS : How I wish we a good constructive discussion about the ongoing crisis in Indian cricket on cricket talk with all the good forummers here!

[mastana]

Of course we do Riya. And how high quality these league games are, was clear last year when not even one of the three teams qualified in semis of the CL. Secondly, practice matches are played to get acclamatised, to get a feel of the pitches and conditions there, not to get just the match practice of that format. I know that you are being sarcastic, but it is for the hundreds of ignorant IPL fans who think practice in IPL (where number of things are fixed) is enough for the preparation of T20 WC!! PS : How I wish we a good constructive discussion about the ongoing crisis in Indian cricket on cricket talk with all the good forummers here!

+1 You are a good poster dude. :hatsoff:

[Sachinism]

BCCI has never understood how important it is to get used to the conditions. India go into every series on the back foot, lose the 1st test and spend the rest of the tour trying to salvage a draw.

[Gunner_Mania]

+1 You are a good poster dude. :hatsoff:

Chandan is a she :hatsoff:

BCCI has never understood how important it is to get used to the conditions. India go into every series on the back foot' date=' lose the 1st test and spend the rest of the tour trying to salvage a draw.[/quote'] +1. This has always been our problem for the past few decades. Irresepctive of who was in power in the Cricket board all of them had no clue about getting the players prepared for the conditions by playing a few warmup games.