Recent tour of England, where India faced humiliating defeats in test matches and one day international games, should be wake up call for administrators of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). If our worthy administrators care a little bit about Indian cricket then they should learn lot of lessons from these defeats. Winning and losing is part of the game but when one team of world ranking no. 1 gets beaten in all departments of the game then it is really cause for concern. We have world class players but we do not have able administrators to take the game of cricket to pinnacle of glory.
First of all cricket administration should be in the hands of renowned cricketers who have tons of experience and they can contribute a lot with their vast experience. Eminent cricketers of yesterdays like Kapil Dev, Bishan Singh Bedi, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Madan Lal to name a few can do fantastic jobs if they are entrusted with the jobs of their respective fields. For instance, Kapil Dev and Bishan Singh Bedi can give lot of inputs to budding bowlers and they can be made heads of cricket academy in Bangalore. They should be entrusted with the job of nurturing young bowlers in fast and spin bowling as we do not have much bench strength.
Secondly, politicians should be avoided for entrusting any administrative responsibilities. Recently, Rajiv Shukla has been appointed as head of IPL. Does he has any cricketing experience ? How he will spare time to hop between his regular job of politics and entrusted job of cricket. Since he belongs to ruling party, he has got the coveted post. Should this be the criterion to get the job of head of IPL? Why not appoint a talented cricketer who has played lot of cricket and understands the nitty gritties of cricket. He can analyse that too much matches in IPL can prove counter productive and this is one of the major reasons of India’s drubbing in England. Earning money is not a bad idea but not at the expense of cricketer’s health and India’s reputation.
Indian cricket is in desperate need of professionals to run it. Lot of talent is available in one billion plus country and professional administrators should have the vision and future planning in place to nurture budding cricketers. We do not have dearth of anything but of proper administration. It will be red letter day in the history of Indian Cricket when some day Board of Cricket in India shall be headed by likes of Anil Kumble or any other prominent cricketer.
