It’s all eyeballs

The millions of people who used to pay money at the turnstiles from the good old days when India was a fledgling cricket nation more accustomed to applauding the superiority of England and Australia do not have to feel cheated. The game was changing from a total dependence on their presence at the arena to be aligned more the growth in their purchasing power as the world's largest emerging middle class with a taste for white goods, cars and just about everything they had only been dreaming of as the benefits of the Indian economy having opened up in the '90s percolated quickly down to around 400 million people.

The TV deal bonanzas runs like this — BCCI gets $1.6 billion from Star for international cricket in India and national cricket in a 6-year deal; $1.6 billion from Sony for IPL in a 9-year deal and keeps 50% of a $900 million deal with ESPN-Star in a 10-year deal. BCCI posted a net income of '350 crore (nearly $60 million), while its gross revenue stood at '950 crore (nearly $160 million) during the financial year 2012-13. The revenues are only set to go up in the coming years with the devaluation of the Rupee helping even more in terms of inflows.
 
Television embraced the Indian middle class as advertisers began to queue up to buy air time to sell goods to a captive market sold as a group on cricket, by then India’s national sport that was being followed with the passion of Brazilian football fans. The change in the demographic dynamic was to have unpredicted effects on the structure of cricket itself. But, first came the acceptance of India as a cricket power by the vey imperial forces that had for long refused to countenance change in the more democratic age. Jagmohan Dalmiya forced his way into ICC to become its head, bringing with him the naked politics of inducing those with a vote like the associate members and friendly full members.

As the scene unfolded in a positive manner on the field, the lifestyles of Indian cricketers changed dramatically in the wake of IPL riches and an increasingly generous BCCI doling out hefty annual contracts, performance bonuses and a welfare scheme for retired cricketers that went beyond anything heard of in sport. The man who was responsible for loosening the purse strings also in favour of cricketers was Narayanaswamy Srinivasan, a sports enthusiast and rich industrialist with international exposure to the ropes of doing business. He started out as Treasurer in BCCI, became its Secretary and then ascended to become President and has risen further to be the nominee for chairman of the all-powerful ICC committee from June.

There is no dispute over the many good things Srinivasan did for Indian cricket, its players, administrators and the infrastructure too. Taking out $16 million from IPL funds, the president ensured each one who had worn an India cap was given a small nest egg. Of course, with the largesse came the higher levels of control too, with even television commentators being appointed by BCCI rather than the broadcaster. Any criticism of the board was not so much frowned upon as nipped in the bud. Moving trusted men from his company to help the board run the game, Srinivasan brought a dictator's touch to cricket administration, stifling dissent and encouraging sycophancy of the sort associated more with politicians. Truth to tell, 'Srini' was the genie in the bottle who emerged to dole out favours while the beast in him sought megalomaniacal control of the game.

Indian cricket could live with that as the once money-starved game saw untold riches and its practitioners adapted an unprecedented lifestyle. A little story illustrates best this newfound Shangrila. Cricketers of preceding generations may not have earned as much money as that one car costs in their entire career. Driving fancy wheels was always a passion for young and macho athletes, but none would have imagined cricketers would have a garage of luxury cars.

N SRINIVASAN IN A FIX

• The case dates back to June 2013. Aditya Verma, secretary of the Cricket Association of Bihar, filed a PIL in Bombay HC raising charges of a conflict of interest in the Board’s two-member inquiry panel probing corruption in IPL. The Bombay High Court declared the probe “illegal.”
• In October 2013, the Supreme Court appointed a three-member committee, headed by former High Court judge Mukul Mudgal. The team was also asked to probe allegations of betting and spot-fixing in IPL and the involvement of players.
• On February 10, 2014, the Mudgal Committee submitted two reports to the Supreme court. One submitted jointly by Mudgal and Rao and one by Dutta. They also filed a sealed envelope containing 13 names against whom there were "unsubstantiated" charges of corruption. One of the names was Srinivasan.
• On March 28, Supreme Court suspends Srinivasan as BCCI president. In its interim order, the court says Srinivasan will be replaced by former cricketers Sunil Gavaskar and Shivlal Yadav. Gavaskar was given charge of IPL affairs while former Test spinner Yadav was entrusted with non-IPL issues.
• In May this year, following the panel's initial report, the Supreme Court gave the Mudgal committee greater powers to investigate the contents of the sealed envelope. Assisted by former senior IPS officer BB Mishra and Mumbai and Chennai police among others, the panel got greater investigative powers for search and seizure of relevant documents. It did not have the power to arrest. The panel was asked to submit a report by August-end. On September 1, the Mudgal panel seeks a two-month extension to complete its probe. The Supreme Court allows the extension.
• On November 17, the apex court says Srinivasan was not involved in spot-fixing or illegal betting and did not attempt to scuttle the probe into corruption in the Indian Premier League. Following this, Srinivasan urges the apex court to reinstate him as BCCI boss.
• On December 1, Srinivasan claimed that all allegations against him were false and that he had acted with ‘speed’ against Meiyappan for his involvement in betting. The apex court said that the onus of disproving charges of ‘conflict of interest’ was on Srinivasan .
• The Supreme Court on December 10 suggested setting up high-powered committee and also postponed BCCI AGM until Januar 31, 2015.