Men may bet and men may go (to prison), but the BCCI brazens it out forever (with apologies to Alfred Tennyson). The events of the past fortnight have clearly shown one thing: That the country's mightiest sports body is sadly short of morals.
“Sadly, shrinking morals is a nation-wide phenomenon,“ says Ajay Shirke, who resigned as BCCI treasurer after the scandal broke out. “Agreed sportspersons have to be role models but the model that we have set in is not working. We can't expect anybody else to behave the way we do."
“Basically, the problem is that we've had a crisis of having a unified response. Whenever the BCCI was faced with a problem, it followed certain rules and norms. That they now vary from case to case is cause for worry . That is what upset me and I came out (of the Board). I found it very difficult to accept the goings-on. The sudden response and over-enthusiasm when other teams are involved is not right,“ Shirke said.He found a vocal supporter in former BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele. “Everything the BCCI officials are doing is wrong,“ he said.Mr Lele demanded that both the betting team principals -Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra -be measured by the same scale. “As for Raj Kundra, I pity him. Being a resident of England, where betting is legal, he must be a habitual bettor.
But if you are going to suspend Kundra and Rajasthan Royals for having placed bets, Chennai Super Kings too should meet the same fate. They say Kundra is a minority share-holder with just about 11 per cent, but what about Gurunath Meiyappan, who was the chief bidder on the CSK table at the IPL auctions?
“Eminent advocate Rahul Mehra concurred with Mr Lele. “The mantra today is all about economics - economics has taken over from ethics. It's all about money today, and it is never enough. The more you have, the more you want. These people who are now in cricket are willing to compromise on anything,“ Mr Mehra said.Veteran cricket administrator from Hyderabad, P.R. Mansingh, team manager when India first won the World Cup in 1983, thinks money is only an add-on for officials who are desperate to hang on to their chairs.
“I would say the urge to cling to their posts is not exactly proportional to the massive amounts of money in the game. It is the mileage they get out of their positions that matters. I am sure even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would not have got the kind of coverage the BCCI officials have got in the recent spot-fixing and betting scandal,“ he said sarcastically .
As long as you hold an important post or an assignment in cricket, money automatically comes. It falls in your lap. Cricket has got so big that everyone wants a finger in the pie.That some of the officials have been around for three to four decades is evidence enough that those offices are most sought after.
A post in the BCCI has always given officials influential positions in our cricket-mad society . The Maharajas, the ministers, the powerful politicos, the industrialists as well as the common man have held top positions in the BCCI,“ he added.Mr Mansingh has a hard take when it comes to present-day morals. “To really come to think of it, the BCCI is only a gathering of representatives of the associations in this country .
And if you really go down to what is happening, it is clear. If a person is not able to keep his own house in order, what will he do at the BCCI level?
You have anti-corruption investigations going on in 10-15 of the 30 associations that make up the BCCI. If you take away the three government bodies -Railways, Services and Universities -and the Cricket Club of India and the National Cricket Club from the BCCI affiliates list, it comes down to 15 out of 25 bodies. That explains the mess,“ he said.