By allowing unfettered play of conflict of interests only to please one BCCI member was the first egregious move that allowed things to come to such a pass
The temporarily displaced president of the BCCI, N. Srinivasan, has an interesting conspiracy theory to explain away the grave problems facing Indian cricket in the wake of the IPL spot-fixing and betting scandals.
He believes North Indians have ganged up to create this picture of a miasma of corruption in order to get rid of him. He may be right to the limited extent that the former cricket strongman I.S. Bindra of Punjab has taken on the mantle of leading the protest after the Delhi and Mumbai police sprang into action on the fixing by players and the betting involving his son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan.
The history of cricket would suggest that although there has always been a free play of politics, South Indians have been some of the most distinguished administrators who invariably had a smooth run. People like M.A. Chidambaram, his son A.C. Muthiah, his acolyte S. Sriraman and M. Chinnaswamy from Karnataka were hugely respected as leaders of BCCI and their influence in cricket matters stretched across several decades.
Mr Srinivasan himself has been in total control of events in BCCI in his reign as treasurer, secretary and then president.
Talk of a conspiracy based on region or ethnicity from someone who still commands at least two-thirds of the 30 association votes that govern BCCI is symptomatic of a powerful personality being peeved at not being allowed to have his way all the time. By allowing unfettered play of conflict of interests only to please one BCCI member and allow him to satisfy his love for the game by buying an IPL franchise was the first egregious move that allowed things to come to such a pass.
The media had only pointed out several conflict of interest issues plus the spot-fixing and betting problems, besides throwing the light on what happened to the game once big business came in along with dancing girls and after parties. In scenting an opportunity the fixers of India’s immense gambling world were not far away either.
A deadly cocktail of temptations was allowed to get into the bloodstream of cricket. This sorry state of affairs offers an opportunity to clean up the game. Instead of shooting the messenger, Mr Srinivasan, who may stage a comeback once matters clear up, must look seriously at the issues raised and find solutions rather than excuses. The time to do all that is now.
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