Presidential preferences

Shakeel Abedi

Thank you everyone, for all the time you have taken to respond to my last column. The sheer numbers prevented me from replying to all personally so far, but in due time I will. Thank you. And specially to those that disagreed, and did it politely too! Those are the salient features of democracy and civilization. Are not they? You do not have to agree with anyone, only be agreeable about it.

But first a caveat.

I do not write about politics. I know nothing of politics. And there are more brilliant writers there who cover that subject. I am not even a sports writer. I would be insulting my betters if I were to call myself one. People like, Prem Panicker, Harsha Bhogle, Rohit Brijnath -- they are sports writers. And what wonderful sports writers they are too.

I am here, writing, ranting only because I love cricket. And I write on what I perceive to be cricket’s ills.

One reader wrote in: why am I blaming Dr A C Muthiah for all of cricket's ills. What great job have his predecessors done? What did the Rajahs do when they were the BCCI presidents?

I actually blame the whole of the BCCI for most of cricket's ills. And I blame him for most of cricket's ills simply because he is the president. Just as the final blame falls on the captain for a team's failure, so does the buck of managing and maintaining Indian cricket stop at Muthiah. Period. He is the final authority, the final say, and the clout. I have nothing against him personally, and I have heard from people who know him that he is a shrewd man, an intelligent man. So it may be. But as a president of BCCI, he is the wrong man at the wrong place, with the wrong job at the wrong time.

When you see a president, any president endorse a rag that they called a vision, you know that he is not the man for the job.

When you see a president who has been given complete authority to deal with Kapil Dev as he sees it fit, and this president dilly-dallies over it, agonizes over it, and then makes a decision that returns as a slap of the face in less than 24 hours, you are sure that he is not the man for the job.

When you see a president tell you he has not seen the most important piece of document related to cricket in recent times, 24 hours after the world has seen and responded to it, you are left with no doubt whatsoever that he does not belong there.

Don't judge a book by it's cover, someone said, give him time. My friends, there are a slew of chapters out there already. When you sit for breakfast in the morning you don't have to eat the whole egg to know it is bad.

One reader called it a shrewd move, that asking Kapil Dev to continue to coach India. He (Muthiah) knew that Kapil would throw in his resignation and the president would be saved from having to fire him. It was shrewd and subtle political maneuvering.

And that, if true, is the problem. That is what we are shouting ourselves hoarse about. Cricket, today, does not need any subtle political maneuverings. Politics and diplomacy has its place, I know, but what we need today is a president who calls a spade a spade. We need a president who does not spend time and money protecting an inept board from having to fire anyone; we need a president who does something because it is for the good of cricket, period.

And for what the Rajahs did or did not do for the game, let history be the judge. I was not there then. And it could also have something to do with times. Thirty years after independence we were still steeped in the "Ji Sahib" mentality. And it could be also because the scarcity of information available. Just imagine me trying to get a copy of the BCCI constitution 20 years ago: I would have to take a trip to Hyderabad, the nearest city, and then make a trip to the Lal Bahadur stadium and look for the officials who could provide me with a copy. In most a probable scenario, I would not have had the money to make a trip for such a mission, and even if I did I might not have been able to meet anyone who had a copy.

Take 20 years later: I send an e-mail to Prem Panicker and ask him a copy and I get a reply the same day, "sure no problem".

Sure, the Rajahs did not do much, but that does not excuse Dr A C Muthiah from apathy. He is better informed than they were; he is more knowledgeable than they were and cricket certainly has achieved more popularity and become richer than when they were around.

Twenty years ago we took all the ineptitude as part of the system, today we will not accept it that easily. We need to know that we are governed well, we need know to the logic that was used behind all the judgment. To be confident that we are being governed wisely, we need to know the process of governance at work. To satisfy ourselves that it is working more or less as it should. It is like that mathematics problem. The teacher wants to know how the student works it out, because without the proper working he won’t know if the student got it right was just plain lucky.

As we still do not know if our selectors were plain lucky or they had worked it out right. It might well be a very well-thought-out result, the selection of this team, but the iota of suspicion will be there because the process is not known.

The same guy who wrote: "Give him time for God’s sake," wrote further: "What is it that you guys want?!" And I thank him for writing that. Though it must have been a rhetorical question I will take it at face value. What is it that we guys (and gals too) want? What I want may be too far fetched and in the realms of fantasy, possible only if I were to live with a rose tinted glasses on and in a place far, far away. But I will be a little more realistic. Since it is a question of "want" there of course is certainly a danger of putting on those darn glasses. My wants:

A. President who is truly a president. There at the high post given to him because he wants to serve the cause of cricket. To give back to the world a little from the vast treasures that the world has given him. True, to find a paragon of virtue in the state of political intrigue and back stabbing we live in might be harder than finding the proverbial needle. But we want a president today who has enough conscience in him to at least pave the way for such a person. To create an atmosphere where such people can survive. In the least remove the filth (or should I say ‘rubbish’.. ) that is hanging around, rid the BCCI of the excess baggage it is carrying.

B. Ideally I would like the president to use whatever prerogative the constitution affords him. And I am sure the constitution has contingencies where a president can rid his board of incompetent members and declare a sort of an emergency. I would like to see him change the make of the board and get professionals to the do the job that needs to be done. I want a president who knows his strengths and weaknesses, who does not try to set up a committee of school children to create a vision statement, but gets the professionals who have made a living of doing such a job. I would like a president who goes into a meeting and comes out with several decisions made, and not with a lame excuse that things will be decided in the next meeting.

C. I would like to see a president who believes in transparency. Who puts all cricket-related matters into public domain. A president who believes that transparency and accountability is the only way to ensure that all concerned work.

But before all that. Before the president becomes the president, I would like to see him become the president because he deserves to be one. I would like to hear his views on why he is the right person; I would like him to debate with the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Harsha Bhogle about his views on the future of Indian cricket. I want the debate to be open and on television where every cricket fan can see and participate.

That is the kind of president I want, and do I find him in Dr A C Muthiah? You tell me!!!

Those are just some of the things I want. It may never happen, but let it not be for want of trying.

Shakeel Abedi

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