Some recommendations are too much: Kapil

Gavaskar says ‘one state, one vote’ rule would be hard on associations

Kanpur, Sept. 25: Former captains Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev on Saturday said a few of the recommendations made by the Lodha Panel were too harsh, such as one vote for one state and the cooling off period of three years for administrators.

Gavaskar and Kapil’s comments echo that of another former skipper Ravi Shastri, who had advocated a dialogue between the Lodha committee and the BCCI to sort out a few contentious issues.

The two stalwarts felt BCCI has a different structure to control and work with and hence all the recommendations made by the panel may not be beneficial.

“I have the greatest of respect for three gentlemen who formed the panel and gave their recommendations...I feel the thing about one state one vote is a little bit hard on associations that are founding members of the Board. If you go to England, you will find that not every County plays the English County Championships. Not every state plays in Australia’s first-class championship (Sheffield Shield). Therefore, to have every state play Ranji Trophy is going to dilute the level of cricket and not help us at the international level,” Gavaskar reasoned.

“What is being done at the moment where teams play junior level is if you do well you get promoted. Like Chhattisgarh did well at junior level, therefore they have been promoted and that is the way to go. You just can’t have states giving direct entry into Ranji Trophy,” he added further when fellow commentator Sanjay Manjrekar sought his viewpoint on the Lodha panel recommendations during the ongoing first cricket Test between India and New Zealand here.

Kapil, on his part, feels it was a “teething a problem” and said while he found many recommendations reasonable, a few were still harsh.

“Some things that I come to know, delight me. There is an age (limit) for everybody. There is one year left for me to be a selector, fine because it says 60 years. But I could not understand that Maharashtra can have only one vote. How can a place like Mumbai which has done so much for cricket can vote only after three years?

“The mindset need to open up. You can’t say this is my thing; this is ours. We have to take the game much ahead of the time and then it will be better. If you are stiff with ideas, it won’t help anybody. They should sit down and discuss what is best for cricket,” India’s first World Cup wining captain said.

“Some of the recommendations, I feel is too much. Lets’ not take anything away from the BCCI. They have looked after this game for 60-80 years. I think one has to be more calm and easy and see what is best for the game. I don’t believe in hire and fire,” said Kapil adding that the selectors should have a “minimum of a five-year term”.

— PTI

Legendary opener Gavaskar said the tenure restrictions do not serve any purpose since it may deprive the deserving administrators progress.