Indian cricket might just be breathing a bit easier now that its control is no more a monopoly. The chief administrator of world cricket, Mr N. Srinivasan, who was ineligible to seek positions in the BCCI owing to court rulings, and his camp of loyalists, who are still in a majority, have to concede that the top two posts, of president and secretary, are not exactly diehard loyalists though they may have appeared to be so in the past. Absolute power has been known to corrupt absolutely, and this was manifested most in the running of Indian cricket in the last few years in which much was done for its “body,” but at the expense of exposing its soul.
It is time the top administrators take the BCCI to new moorings, placing the interest of the game foremost rather than those of individuals brazenly beholden to one stream of thinking that did not always uphold the spirit of the game. Mr Dalmiya, who makes a comeback at 74, is a wily administrator who was the first Indian to head the ICC. He was the flag-bearer then of democratic ideals, which should stand him in good stead now when Indian cricket has to recover from the damage caused to it by naked greed. There is much to be done in restoring the domestic first class game, and even more in ridding the IPL and the board of several conflicts of interest spawned fundamentally by having to accommodate the personal interests of Mr N. Srinivasan in the first place.
