Interests, conflicts and Sunil Gavaskar

 

 

My generation grew up watching Sunil Gavaskar bat. His debut series against the West Indies is the first cricket series I have somewhat clear memories of, and 774 (the number of runs he scored in the four tests he played) is a figure forever etched inmy mind, as much as the Don’s 99.94.

For the next 16 years, we loved him for often standing alone among the ruins of Indian batting, for not wearing a helmet, for his perfect technique and superhuman determination, for breaking record after batting record, for his sod-off attitude towards the white administrators who controlled the game at that point, for his made-in-heaven straight drive to the boundary right behind the bowler. We hated him for his often grindingly boring and unnecessary defensive batting, and for his entirely defensive and often cynical captaincy (going as far as slowing down the over rate to a crawl to ensure a draw). Looking back, however, 27 years after his retirement, and also taking into account the state of the world and Indian cricket during his playing days, he was without doubt the greatest opener India has ever produced, and almost certainly the greatest Indian test batsman.

History and circumstance has now thrust upon Gavaskar a role that he may not have expected: interim boss of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), in which role he must also oversee the blighted Indian Premier League (IPL). But it’s quite clear from his public statements that he is relishing the challenge. Which will certainly be a big one, and (with apologies to The Police) every breath he takes, every move he makes, we’ll be watching him. And if he can manage to pull off a controversy-free IPL7, and after that is asked to run BCCI, and he can clean up—at least to some extent—that morass of greed and vested interests, it will be the crowning glory to an extraordinary career.

Yet, as a committed fan of Gavaskar the cricketer, why do I have my doubts?

Because ever since he left the field as a player, time after time, Gavaskar has been oblivious of conflicts of interest, the principal reason for the Supreme Court sacking N. Srinivasan as president of BCCI.

Because he has been the most diplomatic ex-cricketer we have ever known, either silent or the master of the bland statement on every controversy that has erupted in Indian cricket.

Because, in spite of his denials, we do believe that he compromised himself as a commentator with the BCCI for Rs.3.6 crore a year.

The only time he has publicly spoken against the BCCI was when he accused it of not paying him the $1 million fees promised to him for media activities per season of IPL.

In 2010, while granting telecast rights for all international cricket to be played in India, the BCCI made it a condition that Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri would have to be part of the commentary team for every match. The BCCI would pay Rs.3.6 crore a year for each of them to the telecasting company which would pass on the money to Gavaskar and Shastri. There is no hard evidence that this entailed a quid pro quo, that Gavaskar and Shastri would represent BCCI’s interests in the commentary box, and both denied this vehemently, but it’s really difficult to believe that BCCI, a notoriously money-minded body and about as altruistic as Fagin in Oliver Twist, would be paying this money just because it loved Gavaskar and Shastri’s voice. Anyway, if someone gave you that sort of money, would you ever criticise him on TV?

In 2008, the International Cricket Committee (ICC) told Gavaskar that there was a clear conflict of interest between his roles as head of its cricket committee and as a TV commentator, and he would have to give up one or the other. Gavaskar chose to be cricket commentator. Nothing wrong at all with that decision; the issue here is that the ICC had to actually point out to him that there was a conflict of interest.

But Gavaskar did not seem to have understood the ICC’s logic or maybe he thought it was unfair. Because, he remained TV commentator of IPL while being on BCCI’s governing council for IPL. He clearly saw no conflict of interest there. In December 2011, he went ballistic in public, accusing BCCI of refusing to pay him $1 million per season of IPL, as had been promised, for “media activities”. The exact nature of these media activities were not explained, but he then claimed that Sharad Pawar and Arun Jaitley had both promised him that his dues would be cleared, and presumably they were. So, to put it simply, Gavaskar was member of the governing council of the IPL, a TV commentator, and was also getting paid a million dollars a season for “media activities” relating to IPL. This, after being ticked off by the ICC.

Meanwhile, Gavaskar is also founder-director and chairman of Professional Management Group, a sports management and marketing company. According to its website, accessed on 29 March, it manages the careers of at least three Indian cricketers—Virender Sehwag, Varun Aaron and Manoj Tiwary—and has also organised a motivational workshop with Yuvraj Singh for employees of confectionary giant Cadbury’s India. The firm’s client list, as displayed on the site, includes Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, ITC, Airtel, the Godrej and the Dabur groups, Castrol and Volkswagen.

So, Gavaskar is an administrator, commentator, possibly BCCI’s covert representative on TV, and agent of Indian cricketers, all at the same time. If this not conflict of interest, what is? In addition, he is an NRI based in the United Arab Emirates, where, coincidentally enough, the first phase of IPL7 is going to be played. The choice of the UAE as venue has been controversial, since India has avoided playing there for years because the region is the global headquarters of cricket betting, and IPL6 was hit by a huge betting scandal which led to the whole Supreme Court business.

N. Srinivasan’s conflicts of interest as President of BCCI are well-known. He is the head of the administrative body, his company India Cements owns IPL team Chennai Super Kings, whose captain M.S. Dhoni is India’s captain, who has also been given the post of vice-president in India Cements, and as long as Krishnamachary Srikkanth was the chairman of the Indian team selection committee, he was the paid mentor of the Chennai team. Quite amazing, really. Srinivasan changed BCCI’s Constitution, bought over, bullied and blanked out state cricket associations to stay in power.

Gavaskar comes to the job with what also surely looks like a long record of conflicts of interest and what may seem to be mercenary compromises. He has to do some serious home cleaning himself.

Everything that he has done in his public life indicates that Sunil Manohar Gavaskar is the smartest and shrewdest Indian who has ever graced a cricket field, a commentary box and the corridors of cricket power. There is perhaps no person living who knows more than him about how Indian cricket works, and perhaps even the deals—inside India, international and corporate, overt and covert, dirty and clean—that form the bedrock of the game. He also brings a personal authority—because of his legendary career—to the job that no one can challenge.

To maintain that authority, though, and to be able to keep the hucksters and carpetbaggers in tight control or out in the cold, he will have to make himself visibly and verifiably squeaky clean—morally and ethically.

In courage, intelligence, dedication, determination and discipline, Sunil Gavaskar as a cricketer was second to none in history. Today, he has been handed the most important job in Indian cricket. This is the biggest test of his life. Quite simply, the entire country wants him to be for India once more what he was on the field for 17 years. He cannot let us down. 

 

 AKANKSHA SHANU

PGDM 1st year