Egg on the BCCI's face; lets egg on whoever threw it

Finally, someone screwed the BCCI; and as cleanly as it can get. It was something awaited for a long long time. From time immemorial these slimy rascals have been throwing their weight around, dictating terms to players, coaches, television channels, boards of other countries and surprisingly, they even managed to rake in the moolah for all their farting.

Now, making money is no sin. But not utilising the money for legitimate and necessary purposes is a crime. For starters, BCCI does not have a website of its own. For any information, one has to either go to Wikipedia or visit this unofficial site which resembles one of those elaborately designed blog sites through which people either keep asking for forgiveness for taking a long time to put up their new template, keep thanking the people who helped them or keep thanking people who liked the new design. Can any organisation be so unprofessional in this new millenium which is defined by Information Technology? Just to put things in perspective, Zimbabwe whose cricketing structure has been destroyed by politics has a website, and a very pleasant one at that.

Another area where the BCCI has failed to utilize the vast ocean of money it commands, is the improvement of facility in stadiums. See any match played in Australia/England and compare them to the matches played in India. The contrast is stark. Do you think you could "enjoy" the experience of watching a match at the stadium unless you are one of those privileged pass holders or are able to get hold of the VIP seats? Hell, going by the scenario wrt public toilets in India, I could also be forgiven to think that the BCCI is not bothered about the existence/state of toilets in the stadiums.

Training facilities for budding cricketers, a talent development program are some of the other areas where the BCCI should have pumped in money.

Instead, the money that has been hoarded by not spending on vital aspects has been used to bully opponents, buy votes and acquire an arrogant swagger. Any tom, dick and harry can occupy top positions in the organisation. I do not see a single professional cricketer in the board. Instead we have a dual tasking agriculture minister (whose advent has deteriorated both the agriculture and cricket sectors in India), businessmen, tycoons and the filthy rich lot who in my gully cricket playing days used to be represented by the neighbourhood scowl-face who used to take sadistic pleasure in ruining an entertaining evening for the boys.

The lack of professionalism was evident right from the time India were booted out of the CWC 2007. Finger pointing, a lack of urgency, a chalta-hai attitude were all evident in the BCCI's press statements. And the way they dealt with Whatmore resembled a sort of back-stabbing that usually happens in the Indian electoral scene. (I'll write about this sometime using the union elections in KREC as an example) It was at that moment that I got the feeling that finally something was brewing. All these days the unprofessionalism used to be cloaked under timely victories, a sense of "team-work" etc. This time, it was out in the open for all to see. It was there in newspapers world-wide. The arrogance that their over-flowing coffers could achieve anything became too much in-the-face for the people.

And then came the rejection by Graham Ford!!!!

After having been disrobed in public, all that remained was to garland the BCCI with slippers, blacken their face and parade them on a donkey. This, Graham Ford has achieved in style. People might say that he used the BCCI offer to up his pay at Kent, but this is precisely why the BCCI should have had a transparent process with a pool of candidates who would be evaluated. Remember how Chappell was selected?

All said and done, the BCCI's plight can be described by way of a Dire Straits song 'Telegraph Road' with minor modifications as follows:

Then came Greg Chappell
Then came The World Cup
Then came Ravi Shastri
And finally 'came' Ford
Then came the rejection and the shutting of the door
Which proved that the BCCI is an unprofesisonal board

What's the way out? The BCCI has to first admit that it's sorry for carrying out shadowy business. The selection of the next coach should start with that basic of communications called an ADVERTISEMENT inviting Expressions of Interest from interested individuals. The process should be transparent with former Indian players and present players also being provided an opportunity to have a say. And please, don't gag the captain and other team members from speaking to the media.

What has happened is a national shame, yes!! But right now, I am extremely proud of the humiliation since it has happened to that inept, slimy BCCI.