What is being fought out in Delhi between Arvind Kejriwal of AAP and Arun Jaitley of BJP is an intense political battle for which cricket merely provides the pitch. The DDCA has, however, been a long running story of how sports associations are run in India. Of course, given what is happening in soccer today with the Fifa chief of 40 years banished from the game, questionable management practices are by no means exclusive to cricket.
The year 2015 has been remarkable for soccer’s strongman being brought down while cricket’s equivalent also suffered a nearly similar fate, displaced as he was from his perch by forces from within India. It took the might of the US Attorney General’s office and thorough vetting of Fifa accounts and exposure of shenanigans by a US law firm in the wake of breakthrough action by Swiss tax authorities to bring matters to a head whereby half of football’s top administrators are in jail or headed there.
Cricket is fortunate not to have to stand up to such scrutiny. If international investigators of repute are to take an interest in the game, the fate of many cricket administrators may have been similar. Habitual bribery in many forms is not at all uncommon in sports administration. Only maharajahs and very rich industrialists have been genuine benefactors of the game, with almost every other ‘honorary’ sports administrator guilty of accepting money or favours.
Financial discipline of the kind that can stand the diligent scrutiny of independent accountants is never practised, not in India where sport seeks exemptions based on traditional practices carried over from amateur days when associations had very little money and depended on patronage to sustain. The billions that modern cricket now commands has placed it in a different league, but the admin still suffers from hangovers of the past.
The DDCA was an exception even in the old days when other leading cricket associations staging Test matches around the country used to pride themselves on being well governed. In fact, the Kotla used to be known as the Delhi & Districts Cards Association with officials running the clubhouse activities in the gaming rooms and the bar dominating the DDCA while cricketing activities were restricted to the seniors and former players trying to help the next generation come good on the field of play.
The politicians were always sought out by cricket associations because of the many clearances needed for the conduct of Tests. The politicos were the only ones who could shake up the babu raj into handing out tax exemptions as well as what were fairly routine clearances and permits. The day the politicians started dominating the cricket board was when the doors were opened for manipulative practices while morals and values went out the door. This is not to suggest all politicians are to be tarred with the same brush as there have been a few exceptional ones who were good for the game.
Bishen Bedi has been a long time campaigner for the proper running of the DDCA, in fact long before the likes of Jaitley came into the association, which was ruled by R.P. Mehra. Bedi’s idealism in these matters may be difficult to measure up to but at least he always acted as the voice of conscience. But the game, hurtling along the path of big money and celebrity glamour had little time for the niceties.
It is quite possible that all the questionable practices in spending of money and accounting for it may not have touched someone as high in the administrative hierarchy as Jaitley. But it is quite possible that things were being done under his nose. Not being the control freak like others who ascended to the top of cricket admin, he may well have let things pass for the reason that the show had to go on and someone had to make sure it did. However, the cronyism that the top admin men encourage is part of the baggage sport has known to bear.
Nepotism is probably worse and that has been known to happen too, quite glaringly in cricket where at least one major payment for a big spying assignment was reported to have been routed through a close relative of a top official. Jaitley is facing the same kind of music now in hockey where he is said to have favoured his daughter’s appointment as legal counsel for Hockey India. Such instances will be never ending if sports bodies are held accountable to ethical norms.
