BCCI a public body with private functions

The BCCI is ready to pass on even more into the ruling party’s hands. The game of bringing in former presidents also backfired badly in the last year and a bit, with Jagmohan Dalmiya in not sound enough health to have aspired for the post and his replacement being a lawyer clever enough to scent an opening and use it as an opportunity to vault to a safer position of ICC’s independent chairman. The Marylebone Cricket Club on St John’s Wood Road in northwest London has often been described as a “private club with a public function” and we could very well say that, in contrast, the “BCCI is public body with a private function” with office-bearers keener on using the board to promote themselves rather than try to serve the game. The point is if the BCCI undergoes the huge reforms planned by the Lodha Committee and becomes unrecognisable from the board of old, would it be more professional in letting the men in suits run it while the admin men sit back and make judgments on policy matters or would it just be new wine in an old bottle? Regional politics has done enough damage to the board and if it is to stage a true recovery what it needs most is a couple of logistics men ensuring that domestic cricket runs on schedule and international cricket maximises its revenues.