Accountability starts at the top

It isn't like Jagmohan Dalmiya to be a cryptic conversationalist, so when his opening salvo was, "It's best that you are rid of such problems", I was caught on the wrong foot. Was this directed at the people he had just defeated in the election to the cricket board? The battle had been long and hard, built on intrigue and fought in acrimony. Dalmiya is known to be a good ally, but a deadly foe. Was he sounding the demise of any of his many adversaries? He smiled at the line of inquiry, then stroked his chin, highlighting the remnants of an abcess that had just been surgically removed. The adversaries could breathe easy.

We were meeting over lunch, shortly after Dalmiya had been re-elected president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). He was obviously a man in a hurry, receiving calls by the dozen on his cellphone, flinging orders by the score. He was also, clearly, a preferred client of the fashionable eatery in the five-star hotel where we ate because the steward had placed the order much before Dalmiya had arrived.

As a cricket administrator, he has been ruthlessly single-minded in his pursuit of power. And a fascinating pursuit it has been too, one that has taken him from the lower echelons of state cricket in India, to the BCCI - where he was secretary and treasurer - and from there to the presidentship of the apex body of the sport, the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Then, when most people thought his thirst for power had finally been quenched, Dalmiya decided to contest the BCCI elections. Not too many gave him a chance when his campaign kicked off, but they knew little of Dalmiya's legendary ability to win the trust and loyalty of those who are vital in winning elections.

So here he is now, president of the BCCI, a man who can, if he wants to, redefine international cricket's power-grid. Also, one might add, the man whose first task must be to make Indian cricket the best in the world. That is some task. As a former secretary and treasurer, Dalmiya knows the BCCI inside out. Over the last three decades, he has proved himself to be a firm administrator and a financial whiz of sorts. If the BCCI is the richest cricket board in the world, it is due in no small part to Dalmiya. And if it is, all things considered, still the most ably run sports body in the country, he understands why because he has helped establish the systems and checks that facilitate administration.

And yet, Indian cricket languishes. Cricket ratings on sports channels drum this into our heads everyday. For those who disbelieve the ratings, there are the simple win/lose stats to explain. There are some excellent players in the Indian team, perhaps two of the five best batsmen in the world - Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid - and two bowlers from the top ten - Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath. But when it comes to the crunch, the team fizzles out. Comfort levels are just too high for everybody - player, administrator, selector. There is very little urge to excel.

How to change this trend is Dalmiya's challenge, and the demand of a billion-strong country of cricket fanatics. But it will take more than just a hard taskmaster to effect a change from an ethos where players are happy just to play, and not necessarily win, and where administrators work largely to win the next election. It will take a vision that goes beyond drawing up effective itineraries that make big money.

Dalmiya has begun by trying to redeploy expertise available at home to productive use. The appointments of Sunil Gavaskar as chairman of the National Cricket Academy, Dilip Vengsarkar as chief BCCI talent-spotter for junior cricket, and now, Kapil Dev as bowling coach, all suggest a desire to get the best Indian cricketers to participate in the reconstruction - unless, of course, Dalmiya is just collecting scalps as trophies to show off.

But enough of falsafah. Time to enumerate what Dalmiya needs to do to boost Indian cricket. Here's a quick-fix 10-point agenda:

1) We have talked about it for decades, everybody's agreed that it needs to be done, let's do it now. Change the selection process. Break the zonal format, let the selection committee have only three members nominated by the Board, each serving a three-year term.

2) Create a twin-tier system of talent scouts - one which looks at under 19s to feed the state and junior teams, the other to look at first-class players who might interest the national selectors.

3) Have a comprehensive coaching plan for juniors and youngsters. The National Cricket Academy is well-founded, it needs branches countrywide.

4) Restore university cricket to its pristine position. Most of the past greats came into Indian cricket this way.

5) Get expert groundsmen to ensure that pitches on which domestic cricket (at all levels) is played do not remain benign and batsman-friendly. Let's get sporting wickets to make true-blue batsmen. And bowlers who do not see their work as worthless toil.

6) Improve pay scales in domestic cricket. Cricket is now a vocation, but apart from the upper crust, which plays international cricket, the others who prop up the domestic structure remain financial stragglers.

7) Reduce the match fees for national players by 30 per cent and offer this money - or perhaps more - as win-incentives. Increase the match fees every year, in step with improved performances.

8) Appoint a sports psychologist, at least for the short term, to counsel players on why winning is important.

9) Encourage a players' association that can express their concerns and anxieties. Administrators often become blind and deaf to the problems of the players, and because of fear, players tend to remain either muted, or to get unduly aggressive. A relationship of equal responsibility and accountability between the players and the Board can work wonders.

10) Reduce the number of one-day matches; ensure that enough Test matches are played every season, every year. Treat cricketers like human beings, not mules.

It is galling to live with the knowledge that India has the largest base of cricketers, the largest number of people who follow the game, the richest cricket board and some of the finest talent in the world, and yet remains a mediocre team. Of course, it is not an easy job to change a mindset that has been passed down for decades, but it must be done.

Precedents will tell Dalmiya that three of India's most effective cricket administrators were not cricketers. S Chinnaswamy, MA Chidambaram, SK Wankhede and NKP Salve were drawn from other vocations and businesses into this job because of their passion for the game. Apart from passion, they also showed the energy and the administrative will to make accountability an imperative, both for themselves, and for those they worked with.

It is this sense of accountability -- not expediency in BCCI politics, or a power trip -- that can save India from the morass of mediocrity. All said and done, it is this one word which sums up what Dalmiya needs to do, and it needs to be repeated endlessly -accountability, accountability, accountability...starting, of course, with himself.

Can we get a move on, Mr Dalmiya?