BCCI's new Tendulkar-Ganguly- Laxman committee smells like a marketing gimmick

India loves a committee. If there is a problem or a crisis, the solution is always the same: form a committee to consider the issue. It doesn’t matter if a committee already exists – it is always possible to form a super-committee (or an empowered group of ministers). Especially if you stack it with high powered names.

The BCCI has stayed true to form in appointing Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman to an “advisory committee” that will presumably be responsible for things the board’s 30 (yes, 30) other committees don’t already do.

You would think that the BCCI would have worked out all the details before appointing former cricketers of such stature but what we don’t know about the committee far exceeds what we do know.

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As Sharda Ugra pithily explained on ESPNcricinfo:

What are they accountable for?

That hasn’t been made clear yet.

Who is accountable to them?

No one.

We aren’t the only ones confused either, Ganguly has said he has no idea what the committee is supposed to do (though that did not stop him from being part of it). And what was stopping the BCCI from having them on one of their existing committees? After all, Anil Kumble is chairman of the technical committee.

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It all makes you wonder whether this is a marketing gimmick as much as a constructive effort.

The BCCI has been battered by negative publicity over the last two years, no matter what former BCCI president N Srinivasan’s might have said to the contrary. Lest we forgot, the Supreme Court is currently investigating how the BCCI functions and could well make changes that let a little more light into the corridors of powers.

The BCCI’s new leadership, led by president Jagmohan Dalmiya and secretary Anurag Thakur, have admitted the board needs some image polishing. And what better way to do that then inducting Tendulkar, Ganguly and Rahul Dravid – oops, Laxman will do - into the board.

It isn’t just a matter of how this new committee will work with the BCCI. There is also the question of how they will work with each other. Big names tend to come with big egos. A story in Hindustan Times quotes an anonymous board official saying Dravid declined to be part of the committee, in part to avoid ego battles with Ganguly.

What happens if Ganguly has one view on the new coach and Tendulkar has another? What if Laxman agrees with neither? Or worse still, if he agrees with one over the other?

The dynamics of sport are different. Ganguly was the captain and cricketers are trained from an early age to accept that the captain has the last word. There is an obvious need for a committee chairman to settle disputes but that still requires two of the three to accept they are second among equals. And what happens when they have strong but differing opinions?

Then, of course, they will go to Dalmiya and Thakur, who in turn, could have their own favourites. And that only serves to muddle matters even more.

Make no mistake, having Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman involved is potentially a good thing. But there must be a system in place that works for them as well as Indian cricket. At this stage, it is far from clear that is the case. Positive publicity over the appointment has already started rolling in though.