The Big Story: Maiden over

It's something of a cricketing cliche to say that no matter who's playing the game, the ultimate winner is the sport itself. At the moment, the same cannot be said of what effectively looks like a contest between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Justice RM Lodha panel that was set up by the Supreme Court to look into how the sport is administered. The Lodha panel was constituted after a betting and fixing scandal rippled through Indian cricket, which has since its very inception been controlled by rich administrators and politicians, but in the last few decades also become an avenue for massive revenues.

In the wake of the scandal, the Lodha panel recommended an entire overhaul of the way cricket is run – such as requiring BCCI selectors to be former cricketers, introducing term limits, adding transparency to financial transactions and more. The Supreme Court accepted most of these recommendations, which would fundamentally alter the BCCI. But the board itself has refused to relent. It said in part that the state boards are refusing to follow through on the directives although it is clear that the BCCI itself is prepared to openly defy the court.

On Friday, the Supreme Court put off the question of whether to sack the BCCI's current administrators for refusing to implement the orders until October 17. But the court also made its opinion of the BCCI's stance clear by directing the board to write to state boards asking them to implement the recommendations, while ordering that money transferred to the states cannot be used. The court has also demanded that BCCI president Anurag Thakur reveal correspondence he had regarding the matter with the International Cricket Council.

Now all eyes will be on the court's utterances on October 17. There are fundamental questions governing this society – which is what BCCI technically is registered as – that controls the sport and the players who represent India. In many ways, the BCCI has put itself in this position. Its vested interests and political players have allowed issues like match fixing, betting and problematic selections to fester. Attempts to change sport administration via the legislature have been entirely in vain.

It's a little awkward to see the court directly taking charge of the administration of sport, no matter how big it is. From afar, this looks like yet another example of judicial overreach. And some of the Lodha recommendations might indeed count as overreach. But it's impossible to ignore that we have reached this impasse because of mismanagement, sometimes downright criminality, of the current politician-administrators coupled with no legislative correction. We'll know on October 17 if the court is able to compel India's cricket administrators into ensuring that, in the end, it really is the sport that is the winner.

The Big Scroll

  • Trying to figure out what the BCCI vs Justice Lodha panel battle is all about? Here's a handy guide, by Jaideep Vaidya. 
  • The BCCI was never going to cancel the India-New Zealand series. Here's why they threatened to do it, by Angikaar Choudhury. 

Subscribe to “The Daily Fix” by either downloading Scroll’s Android app or opting for it to be delivered to your mailbox.

Political Pickings

  1. Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati showed no mercy to any of her opponents at a public rally in Lucknow on Sunday. The former Chief Minister exhorted Muslims to not waste their vote on the Congress or the Samajwadi Party, which she felt cannot defeat the BJP.
  2. The Hindu reports that the Congress in Punjab has ruled out any electoral understanding with Awaaz-e-Punjab, the political formation launched by former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu.
  3. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh seems to have further nuanced its stand on the ongoing crisis in Jammu and Kashmir. The Economic Times reports from Srinagar that senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar wants the Centre to "engage with misguided militants and stone pelters" to diffuse the situation.
  4. In Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's health has driven a wedge between alliance partners Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Congress. DMK wants an interim Chief Minister in place till Jayalalithaa returns to good health. The Congress has strongly opposed such as demand. 

Punditry

  1. Kancha Ilaiah argues in this piece in the Indian Express that through its strategy to woo the Brahmin community in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has taken a retrograde step.
  2. Former National Security Advisor MK Narayanan says the surgical strikes across the border may have dealt a blow to militancy, but India has the bigger problem of regaining the trust of Kashmiri youth. 
  3. With the spectrum auction just having concluded, former Vodafone India CEO Martin Pieters in the Economic Times calls on the government to look carefully at roll-out regulations. 
  4. Huma Yusuf in Dawn analyses the far-reaching social impact of the laws against honour killings and rape passed in Pakistan recently. 

Don't Miss

The hyper nationalism on display in the Kashmir issue over the last few months has clearly hit Kashmiri students across the country. On campus attacks against such students are on the rise, reports Abhishek Dey.

Most of the attacks on Kashmiri students are the result of a nationalist sentiment that has grabbed the centre stage,” said Showkat Hussain, head of Kashmir Central University’s law department. “The self-proclaimeddesh rakshaks, who feel they are protected by the state, have taken up the responsibility of being aggressive towards all who do not conform to their idea of nationalism.