Good move by SC to cleanse BCCI
The Supreme Court has named a
four-member Committee of Administrators to run the affairs of the Board of
Control for Cricket in India Some of the BCCI office-bearers were removed for defying the court. The court’s objectives were laudable:
cleansing the administration; bridging the credibility deficit built by
reform-resistant administrators; and revamping a system fraught with conflicts
of interest and unchecked commercialisation.
The things started happening when the
panel headed by former Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha came up with its
sweeping recommendations for reform. The Supreme Court accepted most of the
recommendations and made them binding on the BCCI.
Having a passion for cricket or an
experience of putting the bat to ball is not a sufficient qualification for the
administration of BCCI. These court appointees would revamp the administration
of the board and pave the way for the election of new set of administrators.
The way the board had been run so far as an individual fiefdom of the chairmen,
no one would complain that the Supreme Court had over reached in its judicial
limits. Everything the honourable court has done so far looks fair and right.
Thank god! Supreme Court intervened
and saved cricket from becoming a den of corruption. Hope betting, misuse of
funds, IPL scams, advertising rights selection of players will all be
streamlined. Nominated team are eminent personalities with clean image and
should be able to clean up BCCI and run in a professional and transparent
manner. Hopefully, we also get rid of politicians ruling the roost on all
sports bodies with Supreme Court intervention.
Cricket is no longer the upper crust
gentleman's game it was in the West. It has become almost global and more
popular in countries that adopted them. Cricket has become so important that it
is left in the hands of the cricketers or the notorious administrators. When
the successive governments have miserably failed to ensure fair and sportive
management of the game it has become the duty of the legal arm to intervene.
The accusation of judicial overreach
may become valid only if the committee fails to identify proper guidelines and
conduct elections for office bearers in a free and fair manner. Except for technical
issues, it is not absolutely necessary for ex- Cricketers to be in key
positions. However, the presence of such Cricketers with proven administrative
expertise will be an advantage. Cricketers or Administrators, apart from a
passion for the game, integrity plays an important role which can only be
verified when these people actually go about executing their functions.
The prime issue with BCCI is not
about competency in cricket, but with competency and probity in running a
public body which has several stakeholders in addition to the cricket players.
The previous leaders of BCCI have been sidelined as they deserved and the court
should go further in penalizing the officials who used the BCCI as their
personal purse to dole out favours and consolidate rent seeking. The mandate
that the Lodha commission and by extension Messrs Rai & co have is to set
up structures, processes and rules that will ensure that the BCCI will not end
up as the personal fief of a few sports administrators cum politicians. We
should acknowledge this before shouting that an unfair hand has been dealt to
Indian sports. When successive governments did not act, the court had to. The
same dose is needed in other sports bodies as well where the corruption has
taken root
We cannot guarantee the selection of
the best talent or the best management by these four people. But they will definitely
set the right course and foundations for future.
No comments:
Post a Comment