So the bad guy at the Indian Premier League (IPL) is out, an interim chief has taken over in place of the disgraced but still defiant Lalit Modi, an interim management team has been put in place to look after IPL’s fourth season, another team has been put in place to examine the records (some of which are said to be missing) and Mr Modi’s culpability, and to deal with all queries from investigating agencies, like the income tax department. In all probability, a new management team with a professional CEO will be appointed and, in much the same way that a company is run, this team will report to the IPL governing council. In other words, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is promising the country that Mr Modi was an aberration and, from now on, IPL will be run by the book.
This promise should be taken with a pinch of salt. Too much has come out for there to be any credibility to the thesis that Mr Modi had been playing a solo game for three years. If the investigation and clean-up are to be credible, they must be seen as shielding no one. It is by no means certain that BCCI-IPL can deliver such an exercise, so there is a good case for an external agency stepping in. It would also be a good idea if the government were to make public what its investigation arms and “survey” teams have found by way of tax evasion, foreign exchange violations and the like.
The source of the IPL problem is manifestly BCCI-run as it is by politicians, ex-bureaucrats and sundry folks with their thumbs in the pie even as they declare in unison “What a good boy am I!”. The web of interlocking interests, marked by conflicts of interest, lax governance and opaque deal-making, has to be shredded if India is to get the cricket administration it deserves. Getting the government to take it over, as some have suggested, is a terrible idea. And yet, BCCI cannot be allowed to make pots of money through a government-mandated monopoly, and yet be accountable to no one but itself. A good way to start cutting through the maze would be to declare that such sports monopolies with tax-free status are automatically covered under the law on the right to information; this will ensure a level of transparency and accountability that has been missing so far. A parallel step should be to declare that all posts in such bodies are by definition offices of profit, so that no parliamentarian controls these organisations. It is evident today, for instance, that the UPA government’s parliamentary arithmetic has led to both Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel being treated with kid gloves, and quite differently from Shashi Tharoor, for instance.
Finally, the new people who have been put in charge of IPL need to ensure that this cricket extravaganza loses none of its lustre. The tournament has given a massive opportunity for dozens of players to showcase their abilities and become household names, and it has brought the best global players to play before Indian audiences for several weeks every year. These will contribute to the popularity of the sport and help build new depth in India’s cricket talent. For that, if nothing else, even an unlamented Lalit Modi deserves congratulations; he has done more for Indian cricket than many of the worthies who continue to occupy BCCI’s seats of authority.