JOIN USA bit more grace, and transparency, BCCI?
Opulent, oligarchic and opaque. That's the Board of Control for Cricket in India for you. The abysmal lack of clarity on important cricketing matters and communication of decisions with far-reaching ramifications has left it red-faced. It's an irony that it needed one of their own, Test skipper Virat Kohli, to expose the wealthy board's utter lack of professionalism in handling issues of great interest. BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah, basically squatters as they have completed the stipulated tenures in their respective offices long back, have run the Indian board pretty much like a private enterprise. While press releases, signed by Shah, carry the barest possible information, Ganguly is famous for off-the-cuff remarks to sections of the media. It's one of those remarks – claiming that he had asked Kohli to reconsider quitting the T20I captaincy — that has come back to haunt him.
The BCCI press release after Kohli's resignation in September lends credence to his assertions that no such request had been made by Ganguly. Shah had claimed at the time that he had been in discussions with Kohli for six months about the roadmap, and that his decision to step down was "thought through". Ganguly had sung a similar tune in the same missive. What then was the need for him to claim otherwise when he had already officially welcomed the move, as Kohli alluded to on Wednesday? The issue again highlights the complete absence of transparency. Had the BCCI made public the discussions between its officials, the selectors and Kohli in that meeting, matters would not have come to such a pass. The needless zeal to control information on players' injuries, team selection and administrative matters was well-known, but on an issue as important as sacking one of the world's most successful ODI captains, notwithstanding the merits of that decision, their conduct was little short of disgraceful. As if a one-line statement on the ODI captaincy change mentioned as an afterthought while announcing the Test squad for the South Africa series wasn't bad enough, they also failed to acknowledge Kohli's contributions as skipper. That the BCCI did so through a tweet a day later merely underlined the gaffe.
There has been no reaction from the BCCI or Ganguly so far to Kohli contradicting the former, but a comment of any nature will only make matters worse when the team is on an important assignment. That said, the BCCI needs to address the issue with utmost care and urgency. Whether it can do so remains to be seen but hopefully, lessons will be learnt from this episode, though the history of the world’s richest cricket board suggests otherwise.