The D-Gang

Harish Chandramouli

When the Board of Control for Cricket in India took a contrary stance to the Indian government last week, were they acting of their own accord, or were there actually external machinations at work influencing them to challenge Uma Bharati and her ministry?

Fortunately or unfortunately, we will never know. However, without wanting to sound like someone who indulges in fanciful conspiracy theories of all sorts, one cannot help but recap on all that has happened in recent times:

In January 1999, when Shoaib Akhtar was called for throwing by a 'panel of 9 experts', designated specifically to review certain deliveries of his that seemed blatantly illegal (the quicker yorker and the bouncer, but to name two), there was every reason to surmise that the bowler would, like others before him, follow due process, and rectify his faults in the nets. Instead, we had the ghastly scene of Jagmohan Dalmiya, the then ICC head, stepping in and intervening at the request of the PCB, and overturning the entire process without any basis whatsoever. One, of course, did not expect any better from the PCB than the usual cries of 'racism' that one heard, but for an ICC president to act as irresponsibly and unprofessionally as Dalmiya did on that occasion, was indeed a shocker.

The message from Jagmohan to the head honchos in the PCB was, of course, crystal clear: I scrub your back here, you in turn support my candidature to the presidency of the Asian Cricket Council once they boot me out of the ICC -- and both of us remain happy. Who really cares if your bowlers chuck or not?

If that incident caused some eyebrows to flutter at what one man would do to desperately cling on to the throes of power, what occurred later that year at the ICC's annual meet was something else altogether.

Lord Maclaurin and the English Cricket Board, having quite rightly had enough of Pakistan's big mouths and posturing on the whole episode of match-fixing, decided that they would use their influence in the ICC and with the ACB to put pressure on the latter. The message was delivered loud and clear: either actually punish Akram and those damningly indicted by the Qayyum inquiry, or face suspension from the International Cricket Council. The Pakistanis were a panicked lot -- after all, it was one thing to ban totally irrelevant entities like Ata-Ur-Rehman and Salim Malik (whilst of course lecturing to the world about how "Pakistan had taught the world how to conduct an inquiry" -- in truth, a bigger joke could not have been told), quite another to actually chuck out the likes of Wasim, Waqar, Inzaman, Anwar and co.

But just when things were getting interesting, what happens? The BCCI steps in and throws its weight behind its "subcontinental brothers" -- telling the ECB in no uncertain terms that if England were not going to tour Pakistan later in the year as a protest to the latter's inaction on the whole issue of matchfixing, then they might as well not tour India the year after either. Now the English Cricket Board may have had no compunction about boycotting Pakistan and trying to get the latter thrown out of the ICC, but they certainly were not going to do anything to jeopardize their relationship with the Indians. So Maclaurin swallowed humble pie, and the threats were duly withdrawn.

Once again, it was clear who was the driving force behind India's decision to step in and serve as an aegis for Pakistan's benefit -- the nefarious Jagmohan Dalmiya, who had clearly formed a cabal of sorts with various elements in the PCB.

And what is worse is that it didn't end just there. After making the utterly absurd decision of allowing Bangladesh Test status and giving a Pakistan-wannabe a needless vote in ICC decision making, Dalmiya and the PCB got together once more and actually had the gall to arm-twist the ICC into allocating 50 per cent of revenue generated for "Asian Cricket" i.e either that or the four Asian countries would just split away altogether.

Excuse me. "Asian" Cricket ?! It is 'India' that generates 90 per cent of the revenue in the region with its fan base and markets -- so where on earth do ungrateful trouble-making nations like Bangladesh and Pakistan go about getting a slice of that pie? At a time when Zimbabwean cricket is in absolute poverty, and cricket in the West Indies is dying out at the grassroots level to boot, on what basis does Dalmiya ensure all these extra funds for a nation like Pakistan? Especially when you consider this is a time when the Indian government has been applying calculated financial pressure on the latter, in a bid to cause cessation of cross-border terrorism.

Could there be a more classic example of one man spiting an entire nation for his own personal benefit, really? Somehow, I doubt it.

I must say that till recently, I was all against government interference in sporting matters of any sort. But, after watching Dalmiya and the BCCI in action over the past few months, I am absolutely convinced the 'only' way to ensure that Indian cricket doesn't go to the dogs and isn't there just to serve as a front for the nefarious actions of the PCB and its cohorts, is for Uma Bharati and her henchmen to assume complete control of the BCCI and set things straight.

The more I see of Miss Bharati, the more I like her. She is firm, intelligent, and absolutely ruthless in her own right. It is time she dealt with Jagmohan Dalmiya the only way simpering traitors ought to be dealt: with an iron hand and with no mercy whatsoever.

Marginalise the D-Gang, and do it right at once I say.

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