Cricket suffers due to two-faced administration

Anyone who has watched a clichéd rags-to-riches story, would understand what exactly is going on in world cricket at the moment. For years, it is the rich landlord who sets the rules, the rich landlord who handles all under-the-table dealings, the rich landlord who calls the shots, sneers at the poor followers, jeers at their mannerisms and torn clothes and throws them bits and pieces of what is left on his plate; then comes the twist in the tale. An angered kid plans to take revenge, rises up the ranks, changes the direction of the wind, gets the masses behind him and shows the rich landlord his rightful place.

Bourgeoisie tales aren’t new – they have been handed over from generation to generation. And cricket is one game which has everything to do with class distinctions. Right from the moment it was named ‘gentleman’s game’, it has reeked of class distinctions and racism, which is what brings me to this piece. The frustrated lot have changed – the current lot of frustrated commentators and writers are from a different continent and are better equipped at writing tales of Indian greed, because English is their first language – I guess, their only language. Hence, we get to hear more about it. Nothing else has changed in cricket by the way, except maybe a few tweaks in ODI rules here and there, to show the world isn’t always about money.

But, and even though it is not the best way to start a paragraph with ‘but’, I would still use it to emphasise that it is always about money. If it was about cricket, things wouldn’t have been the way we see it. If it was about cricket, every Test playing nation would play with every other Test playing nation home and away, exactly the same number of Tests, under the same rules. If it was about cricket, it wouldn’t be BCCI and ECB bigwigs tussling to show the world who the boss is, and it wouldn’t be other hypocritical boards nodding yes with one face, for revenues are important, and then come up with dark rumours and ominous whispers on greed, with another face.

If it was about cricket, after all, the T20 Champions League, whose very existence is comical, would have equal representation from every country. If it was about cricket, there would be a Test championship and DRS wouldn’t be in the players’ hands at all and wouldn’t be based on interests of technology service providers like Hot Spot. If it was about cricket, it would be only about cricket. But cricket is just a part. Cricket was just a part of it, even in seemingly concerned but not sincerely delivered tirades from cricket experts like Tony Greig. If it was about cricket, this tirade of a cricket lover wouldn’t have been necessary.

India has a wonderful opportunity to show the world, especially the English and Australian cricket boards, which were once rich and independent, how power should be used. The BCCI, with its political clout, muscle, mass and wealth can etch a memorable legacy and do what the earlier powerhouses failed to do so conveniently and point out now so obnoxiously. It is a tale of two wrongs that don’t make a right. It is a tale of how the BCCI is riding a lovely wave backed by the very fans it insults day in and day out with its brazen attitude. Every single time a finger is raised on the Indian cricket board or a tirade is justified by cricket lovers in other countries, it is the Indian fan who is hurt – that very Indian fan who pays for a major chunk of entertainment which the whole cricketing world enjoys, that Indian fan who is a big part of the reason cricket lovers from Sri Lanka, Australia, South Africa, West Indies or even England, get to watch their stars, that Indian cricket fan who gets a lesson of morality from every other hypocritical cricket follower in the world.

In a way, what we see in the cricketing world is just a major representation of society at its hypocritical best – a whole band of two-faced thieves, interdependent on each other for their petty interests but not ready to admit or take charge of the responsibilities that come with great clout, great power and most importantly at this juncture, great wealth. And sadly, the tirades of a normal cricket lover like this author aren’t very different from the acknowledged pundits, who suddenly found their voices, thanks to their much-too-obvious envy of the growing status of a board they thoroughly looked down upon, not too long ago.

Cricket doesn’t need them, these tirades. And cricket lovers like yours truly, don’t need commentators and cricket experts who have only the capacity for angry outburst, tirades and write-ups that reek and rot of envy and greed, beautiful but obviously disguised under the cloak called ‘love for the game’. No sir, it is much too obvious. And if a normal cricket lover understands this, you the pundits, whether you are from England, Australia, South Africa or India, should understand it. What’s the point of bowing to the BCCI and its gimmicks and then complain about its greed? It is an insult to an Indian fan, who doesn’t deserve it, who is far more cricket-loving and pure-minded than the big-shots from anywhere in the world, who stands in long queues to pay for your after-game parties and over-the-top analysis, for your air-conditioned press boxes and your lovely, crisply tailored suits.

Cricket was meant to be a gentleman’s game because ‘gentleman’ translated into ‘sportsman spirit’ and not ‘a higher class of men out taking decisions with self-exaggerated praise and an unnecessary swagger’. It is a game where money shouldn’t be the important factor. If the joy of cricket could still survive in West Indies, easily one of the poorer cousins in the game, it could survive anywhere. Instead of dancing to the tunes of BCCI when it comes to important affairs like DRS and Test championship, cricket loving administrators, if they really exist, should try to relegate the Indian board, boycott it – they can then claim to be true lovers of the game – because the game will still survive, mind you, only the Indian fan wouldn’t be insulted as much by the less committed but fanatically over-envious and overzealous counterparts from other countries.

But we all love talking and once in a while, in the background of all our chatter, we might need a circus orchestrated in different colours, with ever-changing rules on greens, flanked on either side by skimpily clad ladies, who don’t have a clue about what is going on in the centre. This wasn’t cricket, at least not when I fell in love with it and I hope cricket boards come out of their self-inflicted myopia and realise the same.