Open letter to Sh Markandey Katju,

Dear Sh Katju ji,

 I was compelled to write this letter to you after I saw your comments in a section of the press with respect to the Supreme Court (SC) ruling over the Lodha report to cleanse cricket in the country.  I have a great respect for you and also admire your work especially for the minority community. However I would completely like to disagree with you on the position that you have taken over the cricket that has completely been usurped by corporate interests and is governed in the most autocratic and anti democratic manner. Actually when you write about the SC ruling that ‘clean up cricket may be good but it cannot be done by throwing the law to the winds’  is exactly the inverse that is taking place in the game of cricket. The game and the governance in cricket has de facto gone to the law of winds and hardly any law of the land in being implemented. In fact the game has completely been ruined and the game which had a mass linkage of participation has been squeezed to the few.

I can understand since you have been appointed as the head by the BCCI to advise and guide and your outburst can be linked to that. But please keep in mind that the only advice BCCI is required is to disband the present structure and come up with a new one which is more democratic and is linked to the game and not to the ‘business of game’. Hence the advice to BCCI will be just a tip of the iceberg that needs to be broken.  After all Sir you too are aware of the fact how the cricket boards in the county have been turned into fiefdoms of the political masters who have not even entered the field of cricket ever in their life. Such heads determine the future of the game and the players who worship the game as their deity. Hope you are also aware of the present BCCI president who converted the HPCA from a society into a company and also enrolled life time members with full voting rights , a bunch from his own family and completely disbanded the democratic process whereby no elections took place in the last one decade. Not just that the cricket was used to make windfall profits. The government land was gifted free of cost to the HPCA society which then was converted into a company under the companies act with no remuneration to the government. Similarly on the same land apart from the cricket stadium a five star hotel was constructed? Are cricket bodies meant to construct and run 5 star hotels ? This is not just ridiculous but completely marketisation of sports. The cricket that was played at the district level too was discontinued and selection for Ranji trophy was done directly according to whims and fancies and not according to performance in the district tournament as that is completely gone and has become a relic. Now it seems the same ruinous path will be followed at the BCCI. Unfortunately you are defending such a path.  

Sir, I think this time you are caught in a wrong web defending a wrong thing and wrong person and wrong position.  There are two thing elementary, (a) There must be transparency in the game and the structure and (b)  the selection process must be completely based on merit. Now as far as the first issue is concerned the SC has rightly pointed out that those who hold elected positions should not be governing the cricket body. Let them serve the people. I don’t think there is anything wrong in it. Similarly there should be regular elections to these bodies, which hardly take place. The structure of life time members and converting these bodies into fiefdoms of individuals and their respective parties should come to an end and the SC has rightly pointed that out. Sir here I would also like you to go through the dossiers sent by one of the apt officers Ingeti Srinivas to the IOA why it is necessary to revamp the sports bodies and to make them democratic.  As far as the second point is concerned Sir tell me where is the game of cricket left in the peripheries of the nation. It is completely lost and has been usurped either by the corporate led T 20 or by these associations who decided the selection on whims and fancies and also reported cases of corruption.

Sir I have seen you as a crusader for many issues, but unfortunately this time you are defending what  in cricket we call a ‘dead  ball’. Please amend your position and ensure with all sincerity that this game of cricket of which I too am a great fan survives, prospers and not the individuals earn the dividends some of whom have fled to England and do not intend to come back.

Lastly the question, why am I writing to you? Sir I already have championed this cause here in this tiny state of Himachal Pradesh. where even before the Lodha committee I had filed a writ petition in the HP High court, which still is pending,  to cleanse cricket from what I call the ‘cricket mafia’. Quite interestingly, the contentions of my petition are exactly congruent to the Lodha committee recommendations. Sir I hope you will understand the objectivity of the game and the need to cleanse the subjectivity which is of utmost importance!

Tikender Singh Panwar

Shimla.