A cosy club of crony capitalists
Columns in the Hindu and the Indian Express examine the disappearing lines between political and cricketing establishments and sound warnings over the lack of accountability
ESPNcricinfo staff
18-Jun-2015
In an op-ed piece for the Hindu, Dhiraj Nayyar says that the lack of principles or rules sacrosanct to the governing of Indian cricket have turned the Board of Control for Cricket in India into a cosy club of crony capitalism, one where India's most powerful politicians and influential businessmen make billions off the common fan without any accountability. The fact that there is no alternative to the politician-businessman nexus makes it difficult for change in the organisation. A cartoon in the same newspaper further underlines Nayyar's point.
Crony capitalism thrives as long as the bond between politicians and businessmen remains intact. In the real economy and realpolitik, the bonds can be, and are, ruptured by scandal and the public anger that follows -- 2G and Coalgate forced a pause in rampant cronyism in telecom and coal. But in cricket, despite scandal, despite public anger, nothing has changed. There is no alternative -- there is no Narendra Modi to take on the Congress -- because everyone who matters is on the same side.
An editorial in the Indian Express states that the current controversy surrounding former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi and the Indian government's foreign minister Sushma Swaraj is a cautionary note about the "promiscuous criss-crossing and disappearing lines between the cricketing and political establishments in India". A column in the same newspaper also goes on to list how several powerful politicians are linked to cricket administration in India.
This is not an argument for politicians to keep away from sporting events completely. US President Barack Obama is often spotted at the NBA and NFL games, he has even starred in a YouTube video, displaying a spot of fancy dribbling. But when powerful politicians are seen in the players' dugouts, when they invite accusations of stitching up consortiums for franchises, or when politicians head most of the state cricket associations and openly push and pull for a place under the IPL officialdom's sun, there is certainly reason to worry. By hyphenating their names with the IPL, politicians have lost the moral authority to play the bigger and much-needed role of rule-enforcer.