For many politicians, sports administration offers a second career

It’s a funny thing, isn’t it? Sharad Pawar spends his career dodging bullets: a Congress split; a

defection to the Opposition; a triumphant return; allegations of land scams; bomb blasts in Bombay while he is chief minister; the hostility of Bombay’s Muslims and suspicion from 10 Janpath.

But now, in the twilight of his career, he is in trouble because of something he does not even have to do: his interest in cricket.

 

   What is it about politicians and sports management? If you look at most democratic countries, you will find that politicians are rarely involved with sports bodies. The management of federations is either left to veteran sports administrators or handed over to former players.

 

   Not so in India. In our country, sports bodies are managed by people who are already famous or powerful in another field: business, bureaucracy, the police, the armed forces and especially, politics.

 

   To some extent, one can understand why somebody like Jagmohan Dalmiya, a medium-sized businessman from Calcutta, should be fascinated by cricket. His position as head of the board offered him an opportunity to manage the affairs of India’s most popular sport and gave him power and prominence of a kind that he would not otherwise have gained.

 

   But what of K.P.S. Gill? Why should the hero of Punjab want to be known as the man who ran Indian hockey to the ground? Does it do his reputation any good when his securitymen beat up journalists who dared ask rude questions of the great man at a press conference? India will always be grateful to Gill for what he achieved in Punjab. Does he really need to sully his reputation with his mismanagement of our hockey federation?

 

   You can say, in Gill’s defence that the great policeman only turned to hockey administration when his career was over. He had no more terrorists left to fight and plenty of time on his hands. Having killed off the Punjab insurgency, he decided to amuse himself by killing off Indian hockey.

 

   But what of politicians who devote so much time to sports administration at the peak of their careers? It is sometimes said about Pawar that he spends more time on cricket than he does on his ministry. I am sure this is an exaggeration and that even if the Maratha strongman paid more attention to his ministerial job, it would make no difference to agricultural prices. But it sums up the exasperation many people feel about Pawar’s obsessive interest in cricket administration.

 

   Pawar is not the first politician to behave this way. Priya Ranjan Das Munshi was the head of the football federation even as a Cabinet minister. And at state federations, you will find the likes of Laloo Yadav and Narendra Modi playing cricket politics.

 

   I have been friends with many politicians whose interest in cricket administration has continually mystified me. None of the explanations they have provided has been terribly convincing. Some, like the late Madhavrao Scindia and Arun Jaitley, were or are genuine cricket fanatics obsessed with the game. But why couldn’t they watch it on TV like the rest of us? Why did they have to get involved in its administration?

 

   Having watched politicians at close quarters now, I have come to some conclusions about their interest in sports administration.

 

"Just look at the sums at stake in the IPL saga. Do you sincerely believe that Indian politicians, used to greedily digging their snouts into the trough, have not made money out of cricket?"

   At its simplest and most innocent, the motivation stems from a desire to be associated with the game. You and I may be cricket fanatics. But if we are not good enough to play first class cricket then that’s that. Politicians, however, have an entree that we do not. They can run the cricket board and indulge their obsession to their heart’s content.

 

   But there are other, less innocent, motivations. Politics is a game of peaks and troughs. There are times when you are in power and on top. But there are also times when you are in opposition and out in the cold. For many politicians, sports administration offers a second career. Because cricket is not subject to the same peaks and troughs as politics (though, of course, even here, some factions win elections and some don’t), it gives politicians a sense of power and activity outside of their high-stress political careers. Even when they are in opposition, they still have something to do. And it is no mere ‘something’: sport has millions of followers.

 

   Then, there is the chance to write your name in history. Do you know who S.K. Wankhede was? I thought not. He was a fairly successful Maharashtra politician who ran the state’s cricket association. Wankhede got into a fight with Vijay Merchant, the former cricketer and businessman, who ran the Cricket Club of India. Merchant’s clout controlled the Brabourne Stadium and would not make it available to Wankhede’s association on demand.

 

   No matter. Wankhede used his political clout to build a new stadium, a stone’s throw from Brabourne. (This explains why Bombay is the only city in the world to have two cricket stadiums in such close proximity.) Naturally, he named it after himself. (Or not. The official story was that the association chose the name when Wankhede was not around and that the poor man had to go along with this decision.) Today, V.P. Naik, who was a massively successful chief minister of Maharashtra in Wankhede’s era, is forgotten. But Wankhede’s name lives on.

 

   Alas, these days, there are many far-from-innocent motives on display. Some politicians are now better-known for their control of sports administrations than they are for their politics. Whatever your views on Suresh Kalmadi, there is no denying that he is far more important in the world of Indian sport than he is in the world of Indian politics.

 

   Some of this is simple empire-building. But sadly, in many cases, it is straightforward racketeering. As sport becomes a big business, it offers immense opportunities to make money. Just look at the sums at stake in the IPL saga. Do you sincerely believe that Indian politicians, used to greedily digging their snouts into the trough, have not made money out of cricket?

 

   And that is the primary problem with politicians and sport. There are many honest Indian politicians. But too many of the others have no integrity and no sense of ethics. When they get involved in sports administration they bring their greed and their twisted values with them. Thanks to them, sport becomes like Indian politics: about money and not about performance.

 

   It would be too drastic a prescription to ban politicians from sports management. After all, they are also citizens of India and have their rights.

 

   So, here’s what I suggest. Now that we have the benefit of experience, let us assume that any politician involved in sports management is a crook. Many of them, I concede, are entirely honest. But let’s turn the burden of proof around.

 

   From now on, let’s treat them as guilty until they can prove their innocence.