Chirayu Amin, chairman and managing director of Alembic and head of the Baroda Cricket Association, is interim head of the IPL — a compromise solution arrived at because the franchises wanted either of Ravi Shastri or Sunny Gavaskar, which was not acceptable to the board; the BCCI wanted Shashank Manohar, which was not acceptable to the franchises. So we have a ‘compromise’ in place — and the BCCI is happy, because Amin is tightly networked into the West lobby of cricket and politics, and can counter Modi’s influence [and that of his shadow, Sharad Pawar] in that key region.
But the real revelation of the post-governing council meeting media conference came from Shashank Manohar. Documents are missing from the BCCI office, said the BCCI boss. We had no idea how decisions were arrived at, he said.
It is the job of the governing council to take decisions, it is not our job to examine the documents, that is why we have a professional in place [a reference to IPL CEO Sundar Raman].
Nice try. But it begs one important question: On what basis, other than proper documentation, do you take decisions anyway? Or to put it another way, if there was no documentation, what did you consider while making your various governing council decisions?
Clearly, all you ever did, for the three years of the IPL’s existence, was to rubber stamp things — so why are you and your fellow council members not in the dock for negligence of basic responsibilities?
In passing, could the media please stop touting the services of governing council members Ravi Shastri, Sunny Gavaskar, and Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi to “clean up the mess”? The mess happened under their noses — they were members of the council, where their job was to sit in the back benches and sing hosannas to “Moses Modi”, as Ravi once described him. Further, Ravi and Sunny got their pound of flesh in multiple ways — payment for being part of the governing council, permanent place in the BCCI’s panel of commentators, and so on.
How does a CV that includes three years of playing the three monkeys qualify the troika for operation clean up?
PS: Over and out, for the day. Nursing a case of food poisoning.
Smoke Signals 
Excellent point and I fully agree.
SMG & Shastri are big time establishment cronies, and deserve further scrutiny.
Shastri was an average test cricketer and hopeless ODI player. To hear him comment about running between the wickets and fielding is one of the greatest cricketing ironies.
The Gavaskar I respected tremendously for his test batting (one of the best test openers ever), ignoring his selfish streak and lousy ODI batting (33 runs in 60 overs, can be added to his CV), is being overshadowed by a clone, who did not use his stature to question Modi.
As for Pataudi, he is yet another classic case of conflict of interest (Ref.: Saif Ali Khan’s IPL bid)
And in this mess, the BCCI has made a pariah of a man who would have been an ideal T20 player in any generation, and who has run his own T20 league against tremendous challenges – Kapil Dev. Its time they reconsidered their stance on Kapil and let him have a say in running IPL.
But all these rants are of no avail; BCCI always picks yes men for the most important jobs and none of us can change that ugly reality.
Cheers!
Vasu
i totally agree- put all of them in the doc. and see how the skeletons tumble out!
Rohit Brijnath has written a nice article in the Straits Times on the crass commercialization in IPL,the point about karbon kamaal catch,if it was the EPl imagine Lampard scoring a Revlon Goal and in the NBA -Kove Bryant scoring a Ford basket
Hope Chirayu Amin do not end up as another Idi Amin 🙂
All kind of conspiracy theories are floating around after MI loss to CSK..One of them is RS & TA from Chennai and they held back Pollard. Whoever held back the big man definitely needs a kick on their backside. Explanation from the team management that Pollard was held back for the last 4 over’s of fast bowling in the end was even more absurd…How they knew beforehand that Duminy would get out in the 15th over? At any point MSD announced that he would bowl AM & DB at the end? Pollard is not a tail ender, he bats reasonably well against spinners’ .Don’t know whom they trying to fool here…any way who cares! For T20 WC, if selectors are allowed to change the team now…they should bring in S.Tiwary in place of YS & Uthappa for DK..
Hi prem,
this is not say i told u so, but i did told u couple of years ago when Amin became BCA president to keep eye on him.
he is far from some one’s man (read pawar’s).
By the way where is Mr Dalmiya? Having beer while watching this drama?
Just a word about media who flashes some one’s wedding news as breaking story,,, go figure if you have guts to expose two ministers involved in this IPL drama. They are calling all shots because other side exposes them, why not media dig deep and find something which more of breaking news.
It’s amusing to see Shashank Manohar’s body language during the press conference – swinging on his chair – relaxed back – he seems like someone who knew everything all along but kept quiet.
“A king without a kingdom” – One has to feel for Chirayu Amin. He may not have anything to do for 9 months, till the next IPL or more particularly the auction before that. By then he would have been eased out and replaced by Srinivasan 🙂
if mr Srinivasan is also thinking like u, he has made another mistake. puppets dont vacant seats these days.
Prem:
The issue in India we want sports to be run by sportsmen or profssionals.I believe that sportsmen like Ravi Shastri or SMG will be a disservce,as they are concerned only about commercial benefits accruing to them.The Governing council should be sacked if they have allowed this mess to happen under thir noses.
We have people likeHarsha Bhogle associated with MI and also a commentator,as are SMG and RS with IPL.Cn sports be run by professionals and Sportsmen?Maybe yes only if they are acountable.If businessmen can be politicians ,politicians can also run sports-as long as they are passonate, committed,accountable and step down when required.
Even in Singapore MPS are associated with spots like TT.
C’mon. I wanted to read something about chennai’s win ( being a tamilian it is natural) yesterday and all I get is about the off field issues.
Cricket is too popular and widely-followed a sport in India to be left to the politicians to administer. I think, people like Pawar etc., without any corporate/ management expertise are the main problem hindering the progress of the game to the next level.
It is high time professionals were brought into the picture and allowed to handle the operations of BCCI. There should be an adequate (and auditable) process to periodically review the basis and documentation supporting decision-making as well as analyze performance of executives. Appropriate corporate governance measures should be adopted before the professionalization. Policies and procedures should be laid down to prevent/ detect any conflict of interest issues. (As one of the first steps, Srinivasan of CSK should be stripped of his BCCI office-bearer responsibilities). There should be a robust internal audit process that covers relevant activities of all officials/office-bearers. The reviewer should have adequate independence. Preferably one of the Big 4 accounting firms should do it on a rotation basis.
Ex-players like Gavaskar, Shastri and Pataudi should not be given too much of powers in areas that they do not have expertise in. Their inputs should be sought only on technical matters impacting the game. Their existing contracts with BCCI/ IPL and the manner in which they ‘governed’ as part of the Governing Council do not exactly make them the most appropriate of persons to entrust additional tasks with.
Figure-heads or rubber-stamp positions (like the current IPL CEO) should be eliminated. Proper checks and balances should be instituted.
The exit of Modi and the current mess that BCCI finds itself in can be used as a golden opportunity to fine-tune and rectify things that are not going the way they should be. However, the question is will BCCI rise to the occasion? Hearing Shashank Manohar’s views today at the press conference and reading about the decisions taken…one is not so sure!
Prem, I totally disagree with the suggestion of making IPL a Pvt Company. That will only increase nepotism/sychophancy.
The basic economic reason why Pvt companies do good is because there is a “competitive market”. Thats the first principle. In monopolistic markets, the monopoly company invariably rules like king, like the times of feudalism.
Tell me, who is the competitor for IPL if it is made Pvt company?
Just because BCCI screwed up with all these, lets not forget the basic principles of economics.
The only possible competition in the form of ICL was not allowed to function!!
The solution is to cut the monopoly of IPL.
My suggestion is as follows
1. Delink 20/20 cricket from all cricket Boards( They can keep on controlling tests and 50/50 matches)
2. There should not be any 20/20 internationals . Scrap them( Ian Chappel suggested similar thing few days back)
3. Create 2-3 competeing brands against IPL. Maybe revive ICL. Allow big bash and other tournaments to compete with IPL by having their matches in India while at the same time IPL can have its matches anywhere in the world .
4. Let each franchise compete with each other to attarcat players, sponsers and money.
5. People can buy and sell players, officials and teams without any cap (aka real free market)
6. There will be a window of 3 months every year for this. For balance 9 months let tests and 50 over games continue under respective boards
7. Scrap the auction process for players and teams. The strength of each brand will determine the money in it and the number of teams
Pramod, the suggestions are good. The basic issue here is:
If all these happens, do you think there will be players available for playing internationals that frequently? I dont think so. Why is it that you dont see a Brazil vs Argentina soccer series once in every two years?
If cricket is okay with having only a worldcup or two in four or five years, these suggestions are good. I dont have any particular problem with it. But I am sure too many people will have.
Just to add on: if the league form of Cricket really catch up, dont think that you can limit the economic forces of capitalism to 90 days in an year. That may happen 2 years, 3 years, not for 10 years.
What I can visualize in 10 years time is , if market forces decide then both forms of cricket would be entirely two different games say such as club cricket 20-20 version and other version. In futball we have proper football and beach football.In rugby we have 7 a side and proper rugby etc.There will be differant set of players for both as differant skill sets are required and market forces will determine who will get more money.
In other way it is like getting job in Banks/IT companies and old economy Government jobs.
There will be place for both Yousuf Pathan and Wasim Jaffer/Sitanshu Kotak
Markets and tastes of fans will decide who will earn how much
Correction to ” I dont have any particular problem with it.”
I do have a “small” problem. Who will play Test Cricket?
In fact i is not a bad idea to make 20/20 beach cricket. Atleast we can have appropriately dressed cheer leaders
This is becoming one big farce. To top it, Amin gets a plum job almost like a paid-vacation for running Baroda Cricket.
MAK Pataudi atleast spoke out that the GC may have overlooked the governance (or lack of it in this case) in IPL. Lesser of the three devils, if one may say so. I had lots of respect for SMG (as a player, commentator and thought he would do something GOOD for Indian cricket), and now with this latest episode, it’s sliding a bit. Terribly disappointing that someone of his stature didn’t use for bettering the game that he says he loves. Finally, it’s turning out to be “Apna Sapna Money Money” ! 😀
As long as Sharad Pawar keeps his job in government and assured posting at ICC next year – I will not be convinced that much has changed.
It’s funny no one attack Pawar – not even BJP!!! These people caught Tharoor with his pants down and gunned him – but Pawar and Patel are ‘biradri ke log’ hence the leniency 🙂
And SMG is not a cricketer anymore – he’s a shrewd politician. Shashtri too – to a good extent. None of these should be the commissioner. I would rather trust Kapil or Bhogle – but these guys enjoy no strategic alignments – only people’s trust.
http://indianmuslims.in/why-i-hate-the-ipl/
Good analysis in the above article. A day-night IPL match played at government’s cost consumes electricity enough to power 500 homes for a month.