In an article titled Revamp needed at the top, Ian Chappell regurgitates two of his pet arguments. He points to the fact the the top brass of cricket administration is screwed up. And his proposed solution is replacing the current dunces with former cricketers.
I acknowledge the problem. I find his solution risible. The crux of his argument is:
Current administrators are bad. Current adminstrators are not former cricketers. Therefore former cricketers will be good administrators.
It would be easy to dismiss his arguments purely for its logic, or lack thereof. But let us imagine what Ian’s solution would mean in the Indian context. I cannot see how replacing the current circus of clowns with Mohinder Amarnath (who famously said, “I did not bring a laptop, but I brought my lap.” during his coaching interview), Navjot Singh Sidhu, Machan Srikkanth, Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar will makes things better. If anything, it might make them worse.
Ramiz Raja’s stint as CEO of Pakistani cricket made it no better. Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards and Michael Holding have played a role in the nothingness that is West Indian cricket. In fact the only good thing in West Indian cricket in the past few years was brought about by a rich businessman with a keen eye for a deal and a passion for cricket in the form of the Stanford 20-20. And therein lies the future of World cricket. The final solution lies in a rich businessman with a passion for cricket.
But it will take a while. I am still far from being the billionaire:)
