Time to move on

The Supreme Court ruling on the Lodha Committee recommendations will take a long time for the commencement of the reform process of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which has come to be a by-word for rampant corruption and deplorable administrative mismanagement because of vested interests running it as a personal fiefdom.

On first look, the recommendations, most of which have been made mandatory, will breathe in new life into the Indian cricket, inspired probably by a new set of governing rules. Words like transparency and accountability were anathema to the dictatorial bosses running the Board all these years.

Is it preposterous that BCCI taken as a whole is one place where the most ruthless of politicians shed their garb and join ranks with their sworn enemies from other parties to share the spoils? They exhibited a ‘take-it-for-granted’ approach that thwarted bids to streamline the structure.

The silver lining has come from the apex court, which has more or less accepted most of the suggestions and remedial measures put forth by the three-member panel. True, opponents of highly ambitious administrators like N Srinivasan, Sharad Pawar and Niranjan Shah, are euphoric over the ruling that prohibits anyone above 70 years of age from holding office.

But when one takes a realistic view of the entire gamut of the implications, the cleaner picture will be one that would be perplexing and shocking. With only ministers and bureaucrats being kept out, not even a single person from incumbent lot will lose his job.

By making no mention of politicians as a whole, the entire Lodha exercise and the recommendations thereof suit the likes of three-time Lok Sabha member Anurag Thakur and veteran politician, Rajiv Shukla. There is no threat to them in any form.

Make no mistakes, it is the same team that will continue to lord over all cricketing affairs. Given the power that comes with the BCCI assignment, Thakur will no more need the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association post. Nor will he be keen to join the Union government.

He could perhaps be eased out of the Cabinet in a rejig for one reason or the other but none can dethrone him from BCCI, at least not as things stand. It will be ditto for Shukla, whose party looks unlikely to come to power at the Centre anytime in the near future. His holding sway as IPL Commissioner has been consolidated by the new ruling. One wonders why there has been no restriction on politicians as such.

In a way, the supposed knock-out punch has only floored those elements that are already out of the reckoning. Given the murky nature that has seeped into the system, it may take a long time for things to change even at a miniscule level.

One is not sure if the transformation will happen at the ground level, given that the ‘rulers’ remain more or less the same old gentlemen. The ball with regard to BCCI coming under the RTI Act has been lobbed into the Centre’s court, which suits people like Thakur from the ruling party. Logically, that should have been addressed first and foremost.