Right perception is need of the hour

Right perception is need of the hour

Back in 1983, the Board of Control for Cricket in India had no money to reward the World Cup-winning team. Raj Singh Dungarpur, a passionate cricket lover and those who played the tournament got together with NKP Salve, another able administrator and organised a Lata Mangeshkar show to raise money for the winning team.

There are many instances of administrators going out of their way to help cricketers and selflessly promote the game. This has contributed in bringing cricket to the stage where it is healthy today.

The financially-sound BCCI, rightly shared profits with cricketers past and present and also contributes handsome amounts to state associations for them to spend on development and promotion of the game.

‘Jaggery attracts flies,’ a Punjabi saying, is so true in the case of cricket too as dubious characters entered cricket and with them brought in greed. Like termites, they ate into the system.

To remain or get into power, the value of ‘Vote’ got higher and higher tossing the passion and morals out. The dole made the voter richer at the expense of good, passionate administrators who loved cricketers and acknowledged their contribution.

Despite all this, there are efficient and passionate administrators, who have the ability and intelligence to get rid of the virus to a great extent, provided their tough decisions are viewed in the right perspective.

Cricket is at a stage where it needs to be corporatised. The truth is, very few could be truly termed as honorary workers and why should it be, as they have to spend lot of their time and effort to run the associations, while sacrificing their family life.

Presently, administrators are elected and do honorary work. Some of their decision-making is based on boosting the vote bank. This could hamper the image of the game in the long run. Hence, those elected could be paid (like MPs & MLAs). This will bring in responsibility and accountability, two aspects which are lacking terribly in today’s environment.

The elected administrators can then focus on running the game and not appointing themselves for professional assignments.

Unfortunately today, ego clashes are splitting good administrators and they fail to recognise the opportunists, who are shrewdly adding fuel to their egos to keep them apart and milk the association. The same is also true of cricketers of repute, who in their prime days, ran to the danger end for his partner to get a hundred, but now is overly keen to run him out and get sadistic pleasure out of it. Their coming together will be great for the game.

I hope a day will come soon when difference of opinion on issues is taken in the right spirit and all decisions are made for the benefit of the game.

Ankeet Chavan performed excellently last season for Mumbai and played a crucial role both bat and ball for Mumbai to qualify for the final and win the Ranji Trophy, much before IPL-6 started. Hence, to me, it is not fair to hold back his share of Ranji Trophy prize money and MCA’s bonus when he played for Mumbai wholeheartedly. He should be paid what is due to him, even if his involvement is proved in the court of law and subsequent action is taken by BCCI and implemented by MCA.

His family is standing by him, though as former Mumbai cricketer, I am disappointed that a Mumbai cricketer, if it’s true, got involved in the controversy of spot fixing and should be punished for bringing disrepute to game appropriately. But if the function was organised in April, after the Mumbai season got over, he would have been paid and praised for his performances. Supporting him morally is difficult but paying his dues is not. Hence, I request MCA to view his case in right perceptive dispassionately