The rot in the BCCI is getting deeper

Despite proposals for transparency in its functioning, there’ s been no real change

With head-coach Ravi Shastri getting the personnel he wanted , the suspense surrounding the appointment of the Indian team’s coach and support staff appears to have ended. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has ignored the recommendations of the advisory committee of Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman which wanted to hire Zaheer Khan and Rahul Dravid as bowling coach and overseas batting consultant respectively. It also added a few riders that are likely to make Khan and Dravid reluctant to take up the assignment. The two won’t be travelling with the team for overseas tours. How much value can a consultant ostensibly hired to give you tips on batting in alien conditions impart on India’s infamous flat wickets is anybody’s guess.

One year after a Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India asked the Lodha Committee’s proposals — seeking greater transparency in its functioning in the wake of corruption charges and match-fixing scandals — to be implemented within six months, there is little movement on the ground.

The Lodha Panel had recommended drastically altering the power structure in the board. It sought to change the BCCI’s electorate to one association per state. Earlier, in its attempts to reform the country’s richest sporting body, the Supreme Court had decided that a new set of administrators supersede the BCCI office-bearers and even removed board chief Anurag Thakur. The apex court put in place a four-member panel headed by former comptroller and auditor general of India Vinod Rai. Still, as the mismanagement in the appointment of coaches shows, the Committee of Administrators and the cricket advisory committee appear to be working at cross-purposes. The rot in India’s cricket board only appears to be deepening. And so is its opaque nature of administration. Whether it is efficiency, transparency, or ethics, the BCCI is on a shaky wicket.