For the love of the game, N Srinivasan should go

Back home, my dad sits and watches every cricket match on television. He even watches re-runs and highlights packages. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Bangladesh or Zimbabwe or Afghanistan playing. He will watch it. And if India is playing, the TV is off-limits for just about everyone else.

This is cricket. It is the game India loves; it is India’s favourite pastime. When we have nothing else to do – we will sit and watch it. When we have a lot to do – we will still find a way to sneak a peek. If there is a match, then we are in on it. And that is why the hubris of the BCCI is hard to understand.

They have everything going for them – India loves the game, the sponsors love the game, there is a lot of money in the game, it is by a very clear margin the number one sport in the nation. Yet, the Board officials seem intent on destroying whatever little credibility they have left. And strangely enough, they are doing it with pride.

A couple of months back, a conversation with a senior cricket journalist, who has been covering the game for decades, turned to BCCI president N Srinivasan. Initially, he spoke about the conflict of interest issues, Chennai Super Kings but then he started speaking about the man.

“Say what you will, this guy he knows his cricket. He knows and loves the game – he still goes and watches league cricket. He knows all the old cricketers, he cares about them too,” the senior journalist had said. “It was a pleasant surprise.”

Indeed, when Srinivasan first made his way into the BCCI – the initial thought was that here’s a big corporate guy who will bring some much-needed professionalism to the Board. But given the scams, the controversies and the scandals that have marked his tenure, you can’t help but wonder if he was the man who needed a lesson in professionalism.

Srinivasan is a stubborn man and he simply refuses to go away.

The honest BCCI official is a breed that is almost as rare as the honest Indian politician. You look hard, you make calls, you meet officials and you come up with precious little. The ones who are good aren’t powerful enough; the ones who are powerful enough (the politicians for example) aren’t interested.

No one in the BCCI seems to know who appointed the probe panel to look into the spot-fixing case; not even Sanjay Jagdale who was initially on the panel himself and if they did, they don’t want to tell anyone. That points the finger of suspicion towards one man alone.

Justice T Jayaram Chouta, a former judge of the Tamil Nadu High Court, along with Justice R Balasubramanian made up the commission. He told the Times of India that there was no scope for anyone other than the BCCI to send documents or evidence to the commission.

“It can only be sent to the BCCI. They will go through it and forward it to us as they see fit,” he had said. “This commission has not been set up under the Commission of Inquiry Act. It has been set up by the BCCI and can only function under its guidelines. As such we cannot directly accept documents or details from either the media or anybody else.”

In fact, according to the HC order, ‘the entire process of appointing the panel was undertaken orally.’ That translates to: don’t write anything down, so you can’t be caught later.

Why didn’t Arun Jaitley, DDCA president and a lawyer himself, say nothing? Why didn’t politicians Jyotiraditya Scindia and Narendra Modi raise their voices against Srinivasan? Why hasn’t Anil Kumble, former India great and KSCA president, spoken a word about this? Then again, where has Ravi Shastri, the media representative on the ICC Cricket Committee, disappeared to? All this and we are not even talking about the members of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association who elected Srinivasan president for the 12th successive year.

Why have they all been silent? What are they waiting for? Are they all just interested is maintaining status quo and hanging on to their chairs?

Niccolò Machiavelli, an Italian political philosopher once said: “Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived.”

But the truth is that even though the BCCI officials are deceived – the public is not. They see Srinivasan for what he is – and it isn’t anything good.

It is often quoted that no player is bigger than the game itself. So how can an official – one who doesn’t even play the game – believe himself to be greater? If, as we’ve heard many times, Srinivasan truly loves the game, he should just walk away from it.

If cricket can survive without Gary Sobers, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting, we’re pretty sure it can survive without Srinivasan too.