Primacy for red-ball cricket, there should be no T20 till Under-19 level: Roger Binny

'I would like to go down as someone who did something for cricketers and the cricketing fraternity,' says Roger Binny

India player, coach, the game’s development officer, selector and administrator, Roger Binny has been an all-rounder both on and off the field. The 1983 World Cup hero, who has become only the second from Karnataka to hold the post of BCCI president, spells out his priorities and concerns to DH’s Madhu Jawali.

How does it feel, as an ex-cricketer, to be BCCI president?

It’s a great honour for me and my family. Playing for Karnataka and then India, I hadn’t in my wildest dreams thought of becoming BCCI president. What it basically brings is what I have been doing at KSCA (as its president) for the last three years. And for the last 50 years, I have been playing or have been part of the game, and everything comes within that umbrella. I am going to take it as it comes, because it’s too early in the day for me to say anything. It’s going to take some time for me to settle into my job. I am sure that with my experience, I am going to handle it well.

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You have not actively sought power, but somehow the stars have aligned to hand you the same…

Yes, I never really worked towards getting any posts, but I think what I have achieved as a player and then after that…After my playing days, I have gone into coaching, and I have been into the development of cricket in non-Test playing nations as part of the Asian Cricket Council. It’s a tough assignment being out of the country for months together. Then I got into administration (at KSCA in the late 90s), then became a national selector... I think all of that put together gave me this sort of push from the outside.

What are your priorities as BCCI chief?

Looking at the pitches, they aren’t what we should be making. There was a movement at one time, and I am talking about domestic cricket here, to make the pitches fast-ish and seaming so that when we travelled to countries like Australia, England or South Africa, it wouldn’t take much time to adjust. It was there for a while and now we have gone back to the same situation. It becomes difficult to ignore players who score double-hundreds or a century every other game (on flat domestic pitches), but how well can they survive outside in bouncing and seaming conditions? If you score a double hundred in difficult conditions, then you will have a fair idea that the guy can go to the next level. So, pitches have to be balanced in the sense that each department has something in it.

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The other thing is the infrastructure in the stadiums. It’s still not up to the mark, and I am speaking here of facilities for the paying public. We need to look into it because fans are our biggest stakeholders.

The third one is injury management. We have been seeing a lot of injuries of late, especially the fast bowlers. They are breaking down frequently. We want to find out what the reasons are and fix them.

You have also spoken about making domestic red-ball cricket more appealing. What are the ways to do it?

One is that international players have to play domestic cricket when they get time. There have been many instances when players had the time, but they weren’t allowed to play. It happened in our own state, they were not allowed to play Ranji Trophy. That shouldn’t happen. It lifts your team and it also boosts younger players’ morale if they are playing alongside Test players. Another way is, as I said earlier, making pitches more result-oriented.

Also Read | New BCCI president Binny wants to reduce player injuries, improve pitches for domestic cricket

So, how do you balance the pull of T20 cricket with maintaining the primacy of red-ball cricket?

It’s a difficult exercise because even the players are enjoying the (T20) format. In Karnataka, what we have done is we have taken away T20 cricket for under-16 and below, and that should be maintained. I would say we shouldn’t have T20s in league cricket up to the under-19 level. You can make your way into the state senior T20 team as a 19-year-old but I wouldn’t advocate an under-19 T20 tournament. They shouldn’t have anything to do with T20 cricket. Even inter-school tournaments, which used to be in one-day format, have changed to T20. We (KSCA), in fact, had a meeting with school heads in Bengaluru to discuss the issue. They said players also want to play T20s. It’s also easier to conduct because the match gets over in three hours or so and you can squeeze in more matches in a day. But in the process, the development of the game has taken a hit. So, it’s a challenge to strike a balance but we must keep exploring ways to maintain the primacy of red-ball cricket.

What are your plans for the cricketing fraternity apart from the game? The ground staff, scorers, statisticians and match officials suffered a lot during Covid...

We have to sit down and take stock of the situation and do a recce of what they are getting because I am not sure what they are getting at the moment. They are not in the forefront, but they are crucial to the game, and they need to be taken care of -- probably helping with their children’s education, and taking care of their medical expenses. We gave medical insurance to our (KSCA) ground staff during the last KPL. That sort of assistance will be helpful.

Also, there are people who have missed out -- like somebody might have played just one game or some may not have played at all but were good enough to play. They have sacrificed a major part of their lives for the game and couldn’t make it. If we discuss, (we) may find ways to help those who are not well-off.

This will probably be your last post as an administrator. How do you want to be remembered?

Basically, I have reached the pinnacle of what cricket can offer in India. I would like to go down as someone who did something for cricketers and the cricketing fraternity. Cricket is at the top of my priority list.