Calcutta: Never before has the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) been in such a mess, yet nobody from within is saying anything.
It’s an institution which appears paralysed, with most probably busy guessing when the Supreme Court will deliver a most-awaited order.
Consider the following...
The BCCI has been without an elected president for close to 10 months, ever since the Supreme Court effectively suspended Narayanswami Srinivasan from functioning as one.
Then, secretary Sanjay Patel, handpicked by Srinivasan, got thrown out by his own Association — Baroda.
Last week, the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) president, Sneh Prakash Bansal, was suspended by his executive committee, on grounds of financial irregularities. He’s the BCCI’s vice-president from North.
How much worse can it get?
That Bansal, who was supported by predecessor Arun Jaitley in the last elections, on Monday withdrew the petition challenging his suspension, has left opponents gloating.
Bansal, however, may have withdrawn the petition (filed in Tis Hazari) on tactical grounds. If that is so, he could move another court on different grounds.
Significantly, powerful Union minister Jaitley is understood to have now asked the Bansals to fend for themselves. That they shouldn’t use his name to get out of the hole they’ve landed themselves in.
Besides Bansal, DDCA secretary Anil Khanna has been suspended.
“What a shame... What a mess... Is this cricket? I refuse to believe that the irregularities involve a sum of Rs 1.55 crore only...
“I reckon that’s the tip of the iceberg,” feisty former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi told The Telegraph.
Bedi, who didn’t have the all-important proxies with him, was thrashed by Bansal in the election for the president’s post, a shade over a year ago.
Office-bearers in the DDCA have a two-year term.
Asked if he’d make another bid in a changed environment, Bedi said: “Right now, you’re asking a hypothetical question... The last time, I fought to make a point, not because I was desperate to become the president...
“I’d say it was a token protest from my side... I wanted the loot in the DDCA to stop, that it had to be just about cricket, nothing else.”
Bedi, who has called for an inquiry by any organisation under the Narendra Modi government, added: “The rot runs across the BCCI, as there have been allegations in so many other Associations as well...
“Goa, Hyderabad, Jammu & Kashmir... Is this what institutions are about? There has to be transparency, there must be accountability.”
Surely, the Jagmohan Dalmiyas need to take a stand. Or, is it only about ‘I, me and myself’?
Bedi didn’t forget to praise Kirti Azad, a BJP Member of Parliament, for being “relentless” in raising the DDCA issue at just about every forum.
That, by the way, includes Parliament.
Thanks to Kirti, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), under the ministry of corporate affairs, launched an investigation when UPA II was in power.
The SFIO’s report “indicted” the DDCA.
While it’s largely Kirti outside the DDCA, internally, the lead has been taken by vice-president Chetan Chauhan, a former BJP Member of Parliament.
Like Azad, Chauhan has worn the India colours.
Meanwhile, Bedi and Azad, among others, plan to stage a “dharna” at the Kotla, where the DDCA is headquartered, on Wednesday.
