Big brother BCCI bad for cricket

New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) often gives the impression of a petulant child playing with a firecracker. There are screeches of glee as the cracker lights up, sprinkling light, colour and noise to all corners, and some smoke, but that is ignored.

All very pretty and friendly, till the spoilt brat tries to get too close to the bomb, have it explode on him, and leave him with a black face, at best.

There was never any doubt that Indian cricket runs the game, all over the world, and we as Indians will not apologise for that. Everywhere you go, the biggest draw, in terms of television audiences as well as gate sales, are invariably for India games. The Tri-colour is the most recognised flag in cricket stadia, and the Indian fans are the best in the business.

But the BCCI seems bent on being a bully, pushing all cricket-playing nations into a corner that they are not comfortable with, and that will not be good news in the long run.

The Indian Premier League is by far the richest thing that happened to international cricket, and needless to say that most cricketers queued up for a slice of the pie. All went well, and international stars came, saw, played and got paid (we presume) before they left.

Post that, BCCI, through Lalit Modi, went on about the Champions League, where the top two Twenty20 teams from ever country will play. All that is fine, but English county teams playing Indian Cricket League players (there are quite a few) will not be allowed to participate here.

Fair enough till here, since IPL is BCCI’s baby, and they will have the last say.

But greed and power politics know no end. Now, the BCCI is suggesting that Matthew Hayden and Mike Hussey dump Australian colours, forget about a practice match before their series in India, and play for Chennai Super Kings.

Does this fall under BCCI purview? Far as we understand, the fixtures for bilateral series are approved by the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Fixtures Committee, and that is final, unless there are unavoidable circumstances. Does the Champions League fall under unavoidable circumstances?

It would be very interesting indeed, to figure out how Cricket Australia responds to this. They don’t normally take too kindly to being pushed around.

The funny part however is that the players themselves may not be averse to the idea. As recent surveys show, a majority of players, especially in England (considering that they missed out earlier) would be ready to dump the St. George’s Cross for sundry American Presidents (on dollar bills).

But pride will kick in someday, especially when the amount of kicking around by BCCI become a bit too much. Like all power mongers, those in BCCI do not know when to stop.

But irrespective of how many greenbacks are thrown around, the fact remains that some day, someone will push too hard, and the bomb will explode on their faces.

That will give us more ammunition. So bring it on.

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