Rich BCCI and poor stakeholders!!!!

We seek transparency and the right to know information in the functioning of the state and central governments, government departments and agencies. Public business corporations are required to inform their shareholders the status of business and operations through an Annual Report after duly having an audit conducted. In every sphere of activity which has any public interest, there is a vociferous need for transparency and information/facts.

Cricket in India is run by BCCI, the richest sports body in the country. The manner in which this body manages internal affairs as well as the game is public knowledge. Where and how does this body get the riches, and who contributes to making it what it is financially? You and me, and every cricket follower in this cricket crazy nation. We either are paying to watch the games at the stadium, or we are tuned in to every game possible and also, probably, patronizing many of the products that some of the heroes of the game are endorsing.

Why then should not the cricket fan, the stakeholders of the game in the country today, have the right to know of the internal operations of the BCCI as well as the off-field ‘functioning’ of the team that is chosen to represent (disagreed by many at times) the national team? There has been a hue and cry that the ‘leaks’ in the Chappell-Ganguly soap opera should not have happened. Former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu claimed on a popular national TV network that worser things than the present drama have happened in Indian cricket, and such issues should be kept within the dressing-rooms and never exposed. Pray WHY??? Why shouldn’t the stakeholders of Indian cricket know what their heroes and gods are really upto? Is it disgraceful? Is it obnoxious? Is it detrimental to the game? Does it affect the performance on the field? Would the happenings lower the esteem of the heroes and gods in the eyes of the stakeholder, the ordinary Indian cricket fan? Pray, why should all of us not really know what happens?

There is no compromise of national security if we were to know what really happens with the cricket team. The economy of the country isn’t going to plunge if we were to know facts. Why then should these, apparently, sordid details be buried or shoved under the carpet? Why? Why shouldn’t the report of a coach, the report of the captain, minutes of the deliberations made on those reports, and the conclusions after review meetings be made available to us, the people, who keep this game alive and prosperous? Why not? Every paisa that the Board makes has roots to the support of every cricket lover. And should we NOT be aware of what happens?

Imagine a situation where every one of us stopped visiting stadiums to pay and watch games, opted not to watch any of the telecasts? What would be the repercussion? Surely not a feasible situation, but just imagine for a moment that the cricket fans of this country got fed up of the performance and decided to shun the games of the BCCI chosen cricket team. What would happen? In very quick time the BCCI as well as the heroes and gods who play the game at the international level would lose lucrative endorsement contracts. The board would begin to bleed, and the bank balances will dwindle. Give it a couple of years, and there would even be no takers for any of the positions in the BCCI. No money, no power politics, nothing. The BCCI would suddenly become a leper! That is the kind of power we ordinary folks wield.