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BCCI, BCCI & BCCI

Three similar acronyms appearing in a single article to write home about things as diametrically different as banking and cricket is perhaps impossible to find. But we live in a weird world, where comparisons can be farfetched and yet can make some sense when examined closely.
Although BCCI, as an acronym appeared on the Indian cricket horizon as far back as 1928, it was hardly a force to reckon with and was little known in the wider world, in its early days.
But it was another BCCI, which was established as a financial institution in 1972, which rose like a meteor very fast but also fell from grace very fast. Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani banker, started this Bank of Credit & Commerce International (BCCI) in London & Karachi with its registered office in Luxembourg. In less than 10 years it was operating in 78 countries, had over 400 branches and reportedly had over US $ 20 billion in assets, making it the 7th largest private bank in the world those days. But it did not take another decade for the banking regulators, the world over, to shut down its operation, on the ground, that it was hopelessly insolvent. It was a dream run that became a nightmare. Around a million depositors were badly affected by the closure. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau had described BCCI as “the largest bank fraud in the world financial history”.
But how this all has come about! US $ 20 billion in less than 10 years, and before the end of the following ten years, it was curtains down with capital completely written off.
Reportedly it was not merely poorly regulated, it was also involved in massive money laundering. It handled money for Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, Manuel Noriega, the former Panamanian dictator, Hussain Muhammad Ershad, the Bangladeshi dictator, Samuel Doe, the Liberian dictator, Medellin Cartel drug barons and Abu Nidal, the Palestinian terrorist. Media informs that CIA had worked with BCCI for arming and financing Afghan Mujahedeen against the Soviet Union. It was laundering, proceeds of heroin trafficking in Pak-Afghan border areas. Soliciting deposits from drug traffickers was one of its important activity. It was during those years, in early 1990s, while liquidation process of BCCI was on going, BCCI was being referred to as Bank of Crooks and Criminals International. Indeed, it had all kinds of ‘accolades’ to deserve this epitaph.
If this was the Pakistani BCCI, the Indian BCCI, was only involved in cricket. But in recent times, it made so much money, it lost its main objective of promoting cricket. Money became its driving force. The amount of money it made was so huge, that it has become not only India’s richest sports body but has become the richest cricket board in the world. And all knows money can move mountains. BCCI writ runs across the cricket spectrum. Or else how can Sharad Pawar, who has nothing to do with cricket, become the president of International Cricket Council, the ICC!
As we all know money can be good, money can be bad and money can be ugly as well. And that’s what happened with the Indian side of BCCI. If money and more money and excessive money had destroyed the Pakistani BCCI in the past, can that happen to Indian side as well ! It may not happen, with the possible government intervention in coming years with the active public outcry for a transparent accountability of Board of Control for Cricket in India. But will the various vested interest, inherent in the present structural aberrations, allow it for state intervention? But these questions are for another day and time.
But the degeneration within the game of cricket and cricketers and its management has started quite some time ago, purely for making money and more money. The La affair Cronje – Azaruddin in match-fixing has been the beginning of the rot within the portals of cricket administration and the latest celebration of cricket, called the Indian Premier League (IPL),has only made it murkier in terms of the dirtier side of making money by all means. And all and sundry are only trying to protect themselves rather than protecting and promoting the game of cricket.
But then, non-accountability anywhere has always led to illegalities of all kinds. With cricket crazy Indians, indisciplined as they are, are not overtly worried about the wrong doings within the cricket administration bodies all over India.
It was on April 6, 2000, Delhi’s Joint Commissioner of Police KK Paul charged Cronje and his teammates, Harshelle Gibbs, Pieter Strydom and Nicky Boje with involvement in match-fixing during their one day series against India earlier that year. Despite denials of all, on June 2, 2000, within next two months, Cronje handed a confession to King Commission admitting to fixing, “in a moment of stupidity & weakness”. South African judge Edwin King was heading the inquiry into the Cronje case. Reportedly it emerged that in 1995, Cronje was offered money to throw away a match against Pakistan in the Nelson Mandela Trophy, but he turned it down.
 In 1996, he was introduced to a book maker called Mukesh Gupta by the then Indian captain Mohd. Azaruddin. Reportedly Cronje was offered about $30,000 to give wickets away and lose a test. During the Indian tour of South Africa he was paid $50,000 for match-fixing. Between 1996-97 he received a total of $80,000 from Mukesh Gupta. He admitted to have offered Gibbs and Henry Williams $15000 to play badly in the 5th ODI against India on March 19, 2000. On October 11, 2000, South African Cricket Board banned Cronje for life.
Consequent to Cronje’s submission and admission, a CBI investigation was conducted on the role of Mohd. Azaruddin, despite his denial. CBI implicated former Indian captain in 2000. The ICC and the BCCI banned Mohd. Azaruddin for life immediately thereafter. Strangely BCCI lifted the ban in 2006, but ICC insisted that only it has the power to do so. Thus the ban remains.
Thus, it is increasingly clear, that it is the money that attracts people and therefore organisations like BCCI, to expand their activities, all in the name of sports, all that they do is so eminently unsporting commercial money chasing.
All Indians are privy to the knowledge of payments BCCI makes for all players it has selected and enrolled for making national teams. In all its overseas appearances, BCCI uses the team name as Indian Test side, Indian ODI side, Indian T20 side, but never liked to be under Indian regulations for its transparent accountability. It wants to remain as a sports body to enjoy the fruits of income tax or other statutory levies exemption. It is a case of wanting to ‘have the cake and eat it’ too. Eminent journalist T.J.S. George wrote in the Indian Express recently “The BCCI, with leaders like Sharad Pawar at the helm, conducted itself as an entity that made its own rules, it decided, for example, that the Right to Information Act did not apply to it – and that was that.” Implying, that successive governments have failed to make BCCI accountable to the public, because of whose money the BCCI is richer. Could this also mean that even corridors of power are corrupted by BCCI !
But the emergence of IPL, as an entertainment cricket, has exposed the immense possibility of financial bonanza to its organizers. It is a win-win situation for all, but not for the state exchequer. An IPL series of less than four weeks, spins thousands of crores of rupees and therefore held tremendous attractions to all those who have money and want to make more money. Business tycoons, film actors, politicians are all in the fray to own a part of IPL, to make easy fast money.
We are all privy to the problem that took place between Sashi Tharoor, a Congress MP and Lalit Modi, and Tharoor had to quit his position in the union council of ministers. Who played dirty on whom is still a matter of conjecture. It was only because Tharoor’s wife was to get some Rs: 70 crore or so, sweat money. So it’s the money or what money can buy, is what drives this mad world.
The IPL, which is the brain child of Lalit Modi, who became its first chairman, is currently embroiled in all kinds of issues involving murky financial dealing with all sorts of politicians including Ministers – both central and state – both present and former.
Indians are privy to the way fight broke out between N.Srinivasan, the current cricket boss at ICC who during his term as the president of BCCI got the marching order for the then and the first IPL chairman Lalit Modi. Here too it was money and money alone that was the issue.
A very disconcerting aspect of Indian cricket team is the involvement of politicians of all hues. From Sharad Pawar, to Amit Shah, to Arun Jaitley, to Rajeev Shukla to Jyothiraditya Scindia and others. Aren’t we told that politics is the last refuge of scoundrel and therefore, it is difficult to imagine a situation of clean administration, especially when they are in association with businessmen, who are there to make money and more money, by whatever means.
After the ouster of Lalit Modi, comes the spot fixing imbroglio. While some cricketers have been suspended immediately, the owners and managers of two IPL franchisees too were found to have involved in betting. The Supreme Court monitored investigation has already suspended two franchisees from taking part for 2 seasons and their owner managers banned for life. So, it is the uglier side of money that drove these two teams and their owner managers out of cricket. As of now, it does not look like business as usual. Post judgement, IPL bosses are not worried about the moral turpitude  that was committed or the future of cricket, but how the money matters can be managed, the loss of revenue etc. And come to think of it, one of the suspended franchisee is owned by the current president of ICC, N.Srinivasan, whose only goal appears to be making money and more money and certainly not promoting cricket.At this point it is interesting to quote Aditya Verma, the Secretary of Cricket Association of Bihar. Demanding the ouster of N.Srinivasan from the chairmanship of ICC, Verma says, “It is because of Srinivasan’s greed for power that the entire fixing scandal got murkier. How can such a man head ICC? He should also be banned from cricket administration. For the good of Indian cricket, they should do it as early as possible.”
Thus, those who can think slightly out of the box can surmise why the Pakistanis managed bank BCCI was brought into this discussion. If Bank of Credit & Commerce International, purely for its financial misconduct was described as Bank of Crooks & Criminals International, can this description also suit the other BCCI? The answer is for the reader to derive.
Now comes the other BCCI. This latest acronym is designed as “Blind men’s Cricket Club of India”. This is coined for the purpose of this debate. Not sure how many Indians are aware that India is a member of the World Blind Cricket Council (WBCC) and the Blind Cricket team is managed by CABI, the Cricket Association of Blind in India. Indian team recently toured England and won the World Cup in cricket for the blind and believe it or not, nothing stirred in the sensation hungry 24x7 electronic media, nor any print media took interest in writing about them, except Free Press Journal, a Mumbai based English daily carried a story by Zishan Amiri “HEROES IN ENGLAND, ZEROS AT HOME”. Reportedly, it was the two-back to back-World Cup win, white-wash of the England team in England. Indeed as Amiri says, despite winning the two world cups and their recent exploits on foreign soil, the Indian blind cricket team has not been received well in the media, let alone the authorities. So how are we Making- the-Difference to the differently abled section of our society? What if one of them is from our own family, only then we will feel? As a society, as a nation, what is our duties towards those who are less fortunate. And we have this BCCI, sitting on piles of money, real big money, reportedly BCCI has turned a blind eye on CABI. In their cockeyed vision they are only worried about the two suspended IPL franchisies and  their players’ payment. According to G.K. Mahantesh, General Secretary of Cricket Association of Blind in India (CABI)  “When the team toured England, players were treated by the ECB (England & Wales Cricket Board) as no less than our normal cricket team but for BCCI, the richest cricket board of the world  we are not worthy enough even to give a look-up, despite winning world-cup. Last month, BCCI met in Kolkatta and we were listed for discussion. But Jagmohan Dalmia, the President of BCCI, unfortunately did not take it up for discussion. Earlier in 2014, when the first of the two World Cups was won, Anurag Thakur, the General Secretary, took interest, but was probably overruled, and nothing had happened”.
The Man of the Tournament at the recent English white-wash, Ajay Reddy is a deeply disappointed man, and he tells “All Blind Cricket playing nations are recognized by their respective boards, but only we are not. We don’t expect crores of rupees for playing for India, all we expect is a decent and respectful treatment and proper cricket equipment. While Indian normal cricket players are getting paid in lakhs and crores, we get just nothing and we are also playing for the country. May be BCCI thinks that they cannot make money out of blind cricket. But, unless you give us a chance, at least for a year invest in us, and then see.”
Senior player Jafar Iqbal expressed his frustration while saying “We toured England with a torn kit and no proper equipment”. It was shocking and depressing to hear him say “Our players sweat their heart out and are winning without proper equipment. In fact we white washed England. So you can imagine how good we are. Yet for BCCI we aren’t worthy enough.”
Indeed, BCCI must be made accountable to the nation. It should not be a property of Dalmiyas, Pawars, Srinivasans and their cronies. It should belong to the nation. None in the big time cricket fraternity feels for their poor cousins. That is indeed a tragedy. Now you know why this combination of BCCI, BCCI & BCCI.