Why is Kapil Dev treated like an outcast by the BCCI?

In the midst of all the hoopla surrounding the IPL, everyone forgot to notice the snub that the BCCI delivered to Kapil Dev.

The Board refused to pay him the one-time payment being given to former cricketers and also declined to invite him to the playoffs where most of India’s famous Test cricketers are being invited.

The charge against him, reportedly, is that he has not apologised enough for backing the Indian Cricket League, the Subhash Chandra-backed ‘rebel’ cricket league which fizzled out after burning close to Rs 100 crore. Kapil Dev was made chairman of the ICL in its second and last year. When a general amnesty was offered by BCCI, all the players in the league deserted it and joined the IPL including players like Ambati Rayadu.

Considering the role he has played, it was the duty of the BCCI to offer a hand of friendship instead of trying to humiliate him by asking him to wait outside the doors of the bigwigs… begging for mercy.

Kapil has still some pride intact and rightly did not approach the BCCI for amnesty. Now he is being made to pay a heavy price by not being given the cheque of approximately Rs 1.5 crore (out of the Rs 70 crore set apart for this) which other cricketers of his stature are getting. Though BCCI might relent and give him the cheque, he will still not be invited to the play offs where the cheques will be given and players given their due place in the roll call of honour.

This is a terrible and nasty punishment to inflict on Kapil Dev because it was his World Cup victory that changed cricket in India and on the rebound made cricket the cash cow that it is now. For that alone Kapil Dev deserves all the pardons he can be given and definitely the pride of place in the roll call of honour that is happening during the IPl play offs.

There is no point recalling all the great exploits of Kapil Dev on the field. There are simply too many.

What is relevant here is the role of BCCI which has grown too big for its own good and thus has appropriated the role of judge, accuser, prosecutor and defence lawyer. And frighteningly, it writes all the rules too.

It is a role that has to be questioned and countered. In its moment of glory and generosity not one official is known to have even talked to Kapil when all of them have been living off the World Cup victory for a long time. Not surprisingly, not a single player who played with him has raised a voice in support of Kapil. Dictatorial and arrogant, the BCCI is too mighty an organization to take on.

Not even the biggest money grosser from the BCCI, Sunil Gavaskar is known to have put in a word for this stupid ban on Kapil to be lifted. In the case of Gavaskar, it can be said that he knew which side his bread is buttered on but Kapil, true to style, always relied on instinct and never bothered about what followed.

So while Sunil Gavaskar has always been given a long rope and fat cheques by the BCCI, Kapil was always kept out apart from a brief stint as coach.

Not only that, the BCCI also makes all those who have bought telecast rights to appoint Gavaskar and Shastri as commentators in matches conducted by it. So look at the extend to which the BCCI has gone to buy out the silence and the voice of these two blue eyed boys.

Further Gavaskar and Shastri also write newspaper columns for which also they charge a huge fees to the sponsors of their columns. Surely, Gavaskar knows as much about accumulating money as he did runs.

Though Gavaskar loves the money, he also hates others getting as much money as he does from cricket or BCCI. When coach John Wright was first paid Rs 50 lakhs annually, a big jump those days, Gavaskar in his column attacked the concept of appointing costly foreign coaches.

Coming back to Kapil, he probably doesn’t need to do that. And, at least, he can gain some solace in that. Regardless of whether the BCCI recognises Kapil or not, the people of this country know that he matters. And for most sportsmen, that’s good enough.