Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke may well rue the opportunity missed by them later in their lives. In trying to be the face of the resistance campaign on behalf of the BCCI, they ended up sacrificing their own positions as BCCI President and BCCI Secretary respectively. At some level this is exactly what the duo had been hoping for because they wanted to be seen as martyrs.
Hence, despite repeated reminders they kept hiding behind a ‘members’ call and tried to deflect the whole issue for close to seven months. For every other issue, the duo managed to get the members of the BCCI to fall in line, except when it came to accepting all the Lodha panel recommendations.
Instead, what they indulged in was a series of PR exercises to enhance their image, motivated campaigns against certain members of the Lodha panel. The result was a number of stories fed to the media to show themselves as the messiahs of Indian cricket.
But what they all missed was the fact that the 18 July order of the Supreme Court asking the BCCI to accept the Lodha panel reforms was full and final.
Then again, using reputed former players like Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, apart from current stars like Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and Parthiv Patel did little to take the focus away. Both Thakur and Shirke were obviously being poorly briefed by their team of advisors.
This resulted in only making them the face of the resistance, but would not ever have guaranteed them a long-term opportunity.
Then there were populist, political statements by Thakur on not playing Pakistan even in ICC tournaments. The statements only resulted in further weakening a carefully built Asian bloc unity at the ICC level.
Both Thakur and Shirke came to the position of power with different mandates. Shirke previously stepped down as treasurer disputing N Srinivasan’s role in the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal. So Shirke was seen as Mr Clean, whereas Thakur was the beneficiary of a series of unfortunate incidents which propelled him to the top.
Both frittered away the opportunity to take the BCCI from being an opaque set-up to one that becomes a modern 21st century business corporation.
In trying to retain control, the duo unfortunately had only one defense – which was, if they were pulled out of power, then there could be a hindrance to a series in which the Indian cricket team is playing.
That is exactly the folly committed by all previous office-bearers as well. Cricket is functional because a system has created cult status for the sport all over the country. It can never be about the individuals. While many opposed to Thakur and Shirke will gloat about their removal, they would be making the same mistake.
Hopefully when the Supreme Court appointed administrators take over the BCCI, they will create a pathway for the system to be institutionalised and strengthened further.
There is a CEO (Rahul Johri) and a team of professionals who are actually executing the day to day work at the BCCI. Cricket matches, international series and all operational matters are actually being conducted by them. So a system is already in place; it is now time to empower them.
We never hear from the presidents/chairmen of the English/Australian/South African boards. There is a system in place in those countries and now the system needs to be strengthened in India. We have to be the trendsetters in every possible way especially in a poorly governed sports nation like ours.
Now, if the interim president and secretary implement all Lodha Panel recommendations without any fuss, both Thakur and Shirke will end up looking bad.
Who will have the last laugh, then?
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