Calcutta: To an outsider, at least, Brijesh Patel helped turn the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) into a model organisation, but never got ‘rewarded’ by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
The bitterness arising out of that lack of recognition has, clearly, played a part in Patel deciding not to seek re-election as the KSCA secretary. Critics, however, may have a different take.
Patel came to power in 1998, becoming a trend-setter of sorts when he ended C. Nagaraj’s vice-like hold.
Kapil Dev couldn’t dislodge Ranbir Singh Mahendra in Haryana, but Patel, now 57, showed that former cricketers had it in them to assume charge and actually be good administrators.
Nagaraj had always been at loggerheads with Jagmohan Dalmiya and, so, it was only natural that Patel would be welcomed by the Calcutta-based administrator.
Dalmiya was king in the late 1990s (in the first few years of this millennium, too) and, gradually, Patel got branded as a Dalmiya man.
It helped as long as Dalmiya called the shots, even though some in the KSCA felt Patel was “autocratic” in style.
However, when Dalmiya’s reign ended, in 2005-06, the victorious Sharad Pawar group made Patel a target. To start with, he was removed from the National Cricket Academy, an institution he helped set up, at the KSCA’s HQ, the Chinnaswamy.
The supreme irony is that despite being seen as Dalmiya’s man, Patel never got to be an office-bearer of the BCCI during the years that he controlled cricket from the president’s chamber at the Eden Gardens and his personal office on Shakespeare Sarani.
Yes, Patel had been in the running for the joint-secretary’s post, in 2004-05, but Dalmiya went for Gautam Das Gupta. A year later, equations changed dramatically, in the highly politicised BCCI, and Patel began to feel the heat.
“I’d say I’m leaving when people are asking ‘why’ instead of ‘why not’... I’ve put in 12 years and there’s nothing to look forward to (in the BCCI)... Let the younger generation take things forward,” Patel told The Telegraph.
Speaking from Bangalore on Wednesday, Patel added: “Former cricketers must get involved in administration... Anil (Kumble), Sri (Jawagal Srinath) and the others have my support.”
It’s a star-studded, very high on integrity line-up.
A Patel confidant, meanwhile, pointed out that the KSCA might have continued to “suffer” as the BCCI’s president-elect, Narayanswamy Srinivasan, is “vindictive” and wouldn’t forget that Patel had tried to forge an anti-front.
Srinivasan is currently the BCCI secretary.
“Brijesh himself feels that the powers-that-be gave Bangalore the India-Ireland match, in the upcoming World Cup, when the city definitely deserved one of the bigger games involving India... It could get worse once Srinivasan becomes the president, next September,” the confidant said.
Much of the attention now is on the role tycoon Vijay Mallya chooses to play. Three years ago, he helped Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar become the KSCA president, beating the legendary Gundappa Viswanath. This time, he may just go neutral.
Wadiyar’s win led to problems within as Patel had been backing Viswanath, his one-time India teammate.
The Wadiyar group is confident that the Mysore royal will be able to beat back the former cricketers’ challenge. Wadiyar hasn’t, of course, publicly announced his intention to seek a second (three-year) term.
Because of what is at stake, it’s taken for granted that the entire BCCI, not merely Karnataka, is awaiting the November 21 outcome.
