Sharad Pawar family owned a not-an-inconsiderable-stake in the failed bid for Pune franchisee. The new commissioner of IPL, Chirayu Amin, was also a part of that bid, committing to 10% of the stake, “after getting all the requisite clearances from BCCI”. A case has been filed against N Srinivasan, member of board of India Cements, who own the Chennai team in the IPL. Krishnamachari Srikkanth is the brand ambassador to Chennai team, and also the chief selector of the Indian cricket team.
Sharad Pawar and his political heir, Supriya Sule all along claimed and continue to claim that they had, have and neither will have any stake or interest in any of the IPL teams. This claim has been disproved by multiple instances. Chirayu Amin, only after ousted IPL Commissioner, Lalit Modi, accepted that he had a stake in the failed Pune bid franchisee. But he insists that he would take all the requisite permissions and make all the amendments to the BCCI constitution to make him eligible to possess the stake. N Srinivasan says that the BCCI constitution was amended to enable him to be a part of both BCCI and Chennai bid.
I have nothing to say about the Pawar episode. The matter is too obvious to state it. My point of contention is about the other three “players”. Assuming that even the requisite constitutional amendments were made to accommodate them, simple logic suggests that it creates enormous room for foul play. Assume a situation when the owner of a team makes the rules of the game, which involves seven other teams. Also, in the closed bid, owner of one team is also a person to whom other bidders submit their offers. I am not saying that there obviously has been a foul play. If I say that, it would only be as good as a Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s cover drive. All I am saying is that it creates room for suspicion. It also creates room for unfair advantage to some teams.
India isn’t so short of sports administrators that same person has to hold multiple roles. A replacement to N Srinivasan could easily have been found. Same is the case with Amin. No doubt he might have done some good work for the Baroda Cricket Association. But that is in no way to say that he and only he could take charge of the messy IPL. Srikkanth the selector has at best, been his moody, unpredictable best, which he displayed in his batting. No person is indispensable in Indian cricket administration. Probably Dalmia thought he was an exception in his days. But even he was to bite the dust. Hopefully, good, dedicated cricket administrators enter the scene before Indian cricket has been done and dusted by a bunch of cricket-illiterates. After all, this was the agenda with which the Pawar clan came to power after throwing out the incumbent Jaggu dada (Dalmia)
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