Several people have been flummoxed by what they think was a hot and cold approach last week of Supreme Court Justices Patnaik and Kalifulla examining the Justice Mukul Mudgal panel report on the IPL scam.
On the first day of the hearing the Justices were wrathful, on the second they seemed accommodating, seemingly giving the BCCI a reprieve. Essentially, those looking for summary justice were disappointed. That stems from some lack of understanding of the judicial process, even in the media: arguments between counsel are often seen as indictments and observations by the justices misconstrued as verdicts.
It is pertinent to remember, however, that as yet only an interim order has been passed; the final one comes on April 16. There is also the matter of the sealed enevlope and its contents which has yet to be addressed.
Everybody who loves cricket is looking for a fair inquiry and a clean-up of the game. Whether there is a sting in the tail still is anybody’s guess.
Interestingly, one decision by the bench that created a lot of buzz was Sunil Gavaskar’s appointment as interim president of the BCCI. It evoked mixed reactions from within the administration, cricketing fraternity, media and fans.
There is whole section of people who think Gavaskar, given his stature in the game, is the apt choice to redeem Indian cricket’s prestige. They believe he has the wherewithal cricketing and otherwise to tackle the several issues confronting the Board, and especially the IPL, head-on since.
A good number of people, however, are unconvinced too. Some part of the misgiving arises from the brief time and unclear job profile Gavaskar has to put any overhaul in process, a larger part to his mercurial relationship with the BCCI.
In the past, Gavaskar has sometimes been at loggerheads with the Board in his many avatars, the last occasion being when he resigned from the IPL governing council because remuneration for council members had been annulled.
But over the past few years he has also been part of the BCCI’s commentary team, earning a whopping amount, which skeptics say makes him part of the establishment and therefore more liable to toe the party line rather than effect any fundamental change.
The ambit of Gavaskar’s powers, it is further argued, stretches only to IPL7. The league already has a chairman and COO. All other affairs of the Board are to be handled by vice-president Shivlal Yadav. All this can be a bit of a rigmarole: the IPL is a subset of the BCCI and multiple power-centres could create rather than solve probems.
So there are proponents and there are opponents to Gavaskar’s appointment but that is not germane to the issue in the current scenario: what is pertinent is whether Gavaskar can leave a mark in the meager time he has at his disposal.
I believe he has a great opportunity even in this brief period to set in motion some measures which can substantially improve the governance of the IPL.
How does he do this? Essentially, the recurring problems of the IPL are rooted in the alleged conflict of interest involving N. Srinivasan who owns CSK but no less in how the governing council was formed and how it functions.
Since Srinivasan was cleared to own a team in 2008 by the then top brass of the BCCI, there is not much scope for Gavaskar to address this issue. But he can institute meaningful changes in the governing council.
For instance, instead of being just a ‘cosy club’ of privileged BCCI members and a couple of former cricketers as embellishment, the governing council should include two esteemed persons of unimpeachable repute drawn from elsewhere, corporate sector, judiciary, wherever to increase the transparencyin functions of the IPL.
It is imperative too that the governing council incorporates a representative of franchise owners. Too often, they are left to battle a crisis without having anticipated any, or without the access to resolve it. No other major sports league in the world is so disdainful of franchisee interest.
Gavaskar must also deal directly with the Anti Corruption Unit and put in place a more robust system of checks and balances. As a former player he is in better position to sniff out suspicious incidents than administrators who see spectatorship, sponsorship, and generating revenue as their main tasks.
There is no guarantee that whatever Gavaskar does now remains once his assignment is over. But if he can create a template which makes the IPL more credible for all stakeholders, it might be accepted in perpetuity.
Having missed the opportunity for whatever reason earlier when he was in the governing council, this is too good a chance to forego now.
