national sports
Why BCCI Batting
Lodha Committee and BCCI should come down from their stands to break
impasse. It should allow BCCI to decide on issues it knows best and insist on
transparency in administration
By Veturi Srivatsa
T
here are similarities between Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal and the Board of Control for Cricket
in India (BCCI) President Anurag Thakur, though both
belong to different political parties fighting each other
in Delhi and elsewhere.
Kejriwal spends his time accusing Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and the Centre of not allowing him to function while
Thakur says the Supreme Court appointed Justice Rajendra Mal
Lodha Committee is asking him to run cricket after tying both
his hands behind his back.
Both Modi and the Supreme Court are unmoved and Justice
Lodha tells the Board that it is only carrying out the apex court’s
instructions. The BCCI tried to tell the court and Justice Lodha
that all cricket activity can come to a standstill, including visits of
overseas teams and domestic tournaments. It didn’t work: Chief
Justice Tirath Singh Thakur wouldn’t take any veiled threats and
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The Dayafter November 16-30, 2016
told the Board “season or no season” it has to fall in line.
Domestic cricket is going on and the New Zealanders have
gone back after their tour and now England are here getting
ready for the first Test at the new Rajkot Test centre next week.
Yet, not a day passes without sniping from either side.
It is not easy to cancel a tour unless the Board or the visiting
team decides to do so and for that you need strong reasons. The
West Indies called off its India tour midway over a pay dispute.
Here the players have no such issue and not many active or
former cricketers have come out openly to criticize the BCCI for
the way it is running the game.
Associations are happy that they have been able to construct
state-of-art stadia and former players are happy that they
are getting a fair amount as pension — even those who have
played only one Test get the full amount. A lot of older players
are happy that the pension is as good as what the government
employees get and it takes care of their pocket and medical
expenses.