Political Diary

New Delhi, 25 May 2013

IPL’s Cozy Club

THE ROT IS ALL OVER

By Poonam I Kaushish

From a cricketing extravaganza Indian Premier League (IPL) has denigrated to a C-grade Bollywood film full of, dirty money, sleazy intrigue and fixes. From last week’s arrest of three Rajasthan Royals cricketers and 11 bookies for spot-fixing it has ensnared Board of Cricket Control (BCCI) Chief and Chennai Super King’s team owner Srinivasan, his son-in-law and CEO/team principal Gurunath Meriyappan, now in police custody following a small film actor Vindoo Dara Singh spelling the beans about betting. Big deal if choreographed crime has replaced the cricketing spirit. Howzatt!

As the curtain rang down on IPL’s season 6 and more muck continues to unravel, the issue is not whether Srinivasan resigns or not on moral grounds but the muck runs deep, of thousands of crores games played off-field. Undeniably, the BCCI is a snug club of politicians and industrialist with zero accountability. Its Presidentship means power and money and like Srinivasan, most of his predecessors also ran the Board unprofessionally, so why ask for his head? Our netas never resign on moral grounds, Pawan Bansal and Ashwini Kumar cases in point.

To give him his due, perhaps, Srinivasan was unaware of his son-in-law’s betting, losing Rs.1 crore or merry-making in models company. True, he must be aware of IPL’s Rule 6 whereby a team that comes into disrepute can be de-franchised. Also, that it takes 20 votes to remove him as BCCI Chief. On the flip side, if he were to resign it would tantamount to accepting culpability along-with his family member.

Questionably, if Srinivasan has to bear the cross, equally guilty is the BCCI and IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla. All need to go for making cricket into catch-words of big bucks, bigger branding and cricketers sold as prized bulls to the highest team. Thereby, presenting a perfect ground for heavy betting and match fixing, of thousands of crores made and lost by a spin of a ball. And wherever there is money and power our netas will not be far behind. The bottom line? Dil maange more.

Tragically cricket today, for that matter all sports have gone into the wrong hands of politicians and vested interests heading and controlling various sports bodies. The justification trotted out is that they have the ‘clout’ and ‘expertise’ in raising funds, even for khel-kood! Sic.

So far so good, but what does one do when  sports per se has degenerated from purely a sporting activity to a downright nexus between politics, organised crime and bodies controlling various sports? Think. None of our politico sports bodies’ chiefs play sports. Neither are they past champions of any game boasting of the requisite physical prowess, talent, skill and fervor which catapults them from the ordinary to being idolized and heroes.

Cricketing legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Olympian shooters like Avinash Bindra, Rathore and Gagan Narang, erstwhile hockey and athletic icons like Dyan Chand and Milkha Singh who have the wherewithal to make sports what it should be.

Yet they have one thing our sportsmen lack: An obsession for power not sports.  Forget contributing to games they only know how to milk them and gain from it. Massage their inflated egos, make money and distribute patronage. See how Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha refused to allow the Delhi and Hyderabad teams from playing their matches in Chennai because both were captained by Sri Lankan cricketers. Ditto with other teams who had cricketers from island country. The reason? Vote-bank politics.

All this flies in the face of practice and norms the world over. Sports there are managed by two categories of managers and, importantly, vested interests are kept out. One, those who have been former champions. And two, those who are dedicated lovers of sports and patrons who have nothing to take from sports but everything to give. Thus, if India has to win fame and international competitions, sports bodies need to be controlled by the first two categories.

In this free-for-all vicious circle of avarice lies the forgotten Greek philosophy of sports: The health of a nation depends upon the proficiency of its youth in sports and games.  This led to the start of the Olympic movement in 1884.  Which won the support of even Hitler, who went out of his way to make a grand spectacle of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

It took wings in India under Nehru’s patronage who conceptualized the Asian Games Federation and organized the first “regional Olympiad” (Asian Games) in New Delhi in 1951.  His message was clear: “Play the game in the spirit of the game”.  The National Sports Federations too adhered to the Olympic ideals of amateur sports, namely, anyone found guilty of monetary benefit from sports was disqualified from participation in international competitions.  In fact, way back in the early 1960s, a woman athlete from Kolkata was disqualified for appearing in a Bata advertisement for sports shoes.

Sadly, the ball game started changing once black money started increasing with each passing year.  So did the Government’s contribution, with budgets spiraling from Rs.13 crores during the Second Plan to about Rs.300 crores in the Ninth Plan. Bringing things to such a pass that sport is now controlled by a Ministry at the Centre and in the States.

Remember the 2010 Commonwealth Games fiasco. Where the budget allocation of Rs500 crores burgeoned into over Rs 3000 crores. And how India came out a loser, loss of image and reputation and shamed by those heading the Indian Olympic Committee. Big deal if a few went behind bars, but where is the money? None know.

Finally, the million-dollar question? How is the Government going to stall the domino effect and recover the opportunity cost this cricket-loving nation and sports pay when it usurp controls? For starters, keep politicians and bureaucrats out of sports and revamp various sports administrations. Bodies that choose sportsmen and teams to represent India cannot continue as a cozy club of cronyism. It must be open to democratic accountability, its processes must be democratic and it must be formed democratically.

If the existing laws do not allow such democratisation of sports, the Government needs to create a law to change this state of affairs. What we need is not some knee-jerk law on spot-fixing and betting. But also revive the decision taken at a Sports Congress in New Delhi in 1963: Keep politicians out of the national sports federations.  It is plain that rescuing sport from the Octopus-like grip of vested interests, pathetic management, bad planning deceit and money across the country will be a long and painful process.

Clearly, a beginning has to be made soon. We have to be clear about what we want to achieve and how? We have to decide whether India and its sports will be clean bowled or will we play it to the hilt and retrieve sports lost honour and glory. The fear of the fall of our icons should not make us turn a blind eye to our own crime in queering the pitch for what India desperately needs: Healthy sport. Time to win and do a Chak De India! ---- INFA

(Copyright India News and Feature Alliance)