Cricket can learn from football

In his Hindustan Times blog, Anand Vasu contrasts the administration of the two most widely followed sports in the world - while officials take a backseat, letting on-field football action speak for itself, the BCCI goes the other way, creating a lot of orchestrated noise to sell cricket. With the cricket World Cup round the corner, he hopes the BCCI would learn some of the best practices from South Africa.

The tournament itself seems to be an incredibly special affair, with anyone who has been present at the venues returning touched in one way or another. The logistics and organisation are at a scale matched only by the Olympics and the kind of fan support – and nothing is cheap at a World Cup venue – has to be seen to be believed.

For their part, the BCCI believe the world begins and ends with cricket. Through the year they talk about what they have achieved and how the game is growing almost uncontrollably in India. While this is true in most aspects, there’s certainly a lot the Board can learn about an event, a game, its stakeholders, and the relationships that bind them together.