What will the Board do if Dhoni and Yuvraj decide to play for ICL?

Sanjay Kapoor/Akash Bisht Delhi

Despite the passion it arouses, as the bang-bang versions become the one-dimensional foreplay of this love game, cricket can no longer be referred as a classical gentleman's game. It has transformed into a modern day, hit and run marketing gimmick driven by the relentless force of big cash where the fat cats of big corporations and cricket bodies call the shots, with star cricketers turning billionaires overnight. Amid all this chaos is BCCI, the world's richest cricket board, dictating terms on how the game should be promoted. Crores are being spent on glittery events rather than promoting the game or talented youngsters, in building infrastructure, or helping former players by giving them either jobs, financial assistance, or professional opportunities. Cliques are bossy and accountability is zero, while the game goes on endlessly, without respite. Television channels concentrate more on advertisements rather than what's happening on the field.

The arrival of Subhash Chandra backed Indian Cricket League (ICL) has outraged BCCI. The board has declared a virtual war against them — not allowing their players to play for their state teams, threatening their financers and not granting them permission to play on any of their stadiums. This is a form of apartheid in what is a rapidly becoming market-driven phenomenon in the current scenario. To outsmart the ICL the BCCI has gone to the extent of announcing their version — the Indian Premier League (IPL) . This hysterical response seems bereft of rationality or logic because the BCCI itself is a private, autonomous body, operating in a free market economy, minting money like nobody's business. So what is wrong with the BCCI? Why is it behaving with such amateurish pettiness? Cricket legend Kapil Dev, head of the executive Board of the ICL, in an exclusive interview with Hardnews at Delhi Golf Club lashes out at the BCCI and explains how the Board has been nothing else but hostile against ICL, its players and everyone else associated with it.

You have been associated with cricket for decades. What is your assessment of the cricket management in our country? 

I am here to serve the game. Our system is such that we cannot work for sports after our careers are over. We should make sports a proper career so that even after players retire, they do not have to take jobs with banks or in other sectors. The irony is that former players are now working in various sectors about which they never knew anything, while people who know nothing about the game have been associated with cricket for the past 30 years. A lot of great players are looking for jobs while the board is getting foreign coaches and support staff. This is not justified.

What steps can be initiated in this regard?

Politicians should not control the game, cricketers should. Look at my case. I have played for Haryana for many years but I am not part of the Haryana Cricket Board. There are numerous others like me. Instead, we have politicians who never had anything to do with sports but they are part of state cricket boards. In the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), 21 votes out of the total tally of 35 are controlled by politicians. That is what hurts me. It's a money game, but we should also let players share that booty.

Why cannot Sunil Gavaskar, Bishen Singh Bedi, Nawab Pataudi or Ajit Wadekar be president of the Board? Why does it have to be a politician? Why is none of the secretaries from cricket? I want cricketers to decide and vote for the Board's president and secretary.

What do you think of the Indian Cricket League (ICL) and how will it help cricket?