Jhakas | Sanjay Jha
Over the last few days everyone has joined this Cricket Club of India (CCI)-IPL circus in town. There are earnest pleas from respected scribes and sundry columnists, even former cricketers, alluding that the age-old classic body CCI, the traditional vanguard of Indian cricket, should allow the self-proclaimed Donald Trump of IPL cricket, Lalit Modi's tournament finals to be staged on its famous greens. Besides being a cricket enthusiast, part of the hack-brigade, and also a member of this prestigious club, let me at least try to put the ongoing war into a dispassionate perspective.
1) What is so great about having one match (even if it's the IPL finals) being played at CCI? T20 is modern-day evening entertainment at best, and a mere three-hour frivolous razzmatazz not being staged at CCI does not mean the end of the world for the august club. To begin with, therefore, all this endless gibberish about CCI losing out on cricket is complete balderdash. Continue reading below
2) Incidentally, the reason why CCI is getting the T20 finals is ONLY because neighbouring Wankhede stadium is under renovation----period! This has actually nothing to do with the return of quality cricket et al; it's pure administrative and tactical convenience. Once Wankhede is up and running, it is unlikely that IPL blokes will even give CCI a cursory call or a second look.
3) Since Mr Modi and Mr Sharad Pawar, and all BCCI office-bearers understand the pristine significance of India's cricketing Mecca, do they not have the basic sensitivity to respect members (who have been there for several decades) who have over many years brought a respectable halo to the club's grandeur? Is it really humanly decent to ask them to vacate their traditional space for a considerable period, even sit in a distant stand, just to accommodate cash-rich sponsor's guests and diamond-studded family members? Will Mr Modi please sit in the North Stand at Sawai Man Singh stadium along with his high-profile guests (I know Modi will respond saying YES, because he knows he really will not have to)? Frankly, are the club members being truly unreasonable or are they just expressing basic fundamental rights? I dare Lalit Modi to ask the Lord's members to vacate the haloed pavilion for IPL sponsors during the Champions League in London.
4) Lalit Modi indulges in petty one-upmanship by appearing to be self-righteous; "We need the CCI only for 1 day". That's wholesale bunkum. The CCI management has categorically restricted usual access for days preceding and after IPL match(es) and will thus affect all members and families and kids for multiple days, and not just one single day.
5) The CCI members have a genuine apprehension regarding the amended clause 145 which does give the CCI management a unilateral hand to manipulate the changed rule, and which may deny regular facilities to members, even in the future.
I suggest, however, the following steps to ensure that CCI sees a long-term return of cricket, while ensuring that the members are never compromised.
Recommendation:
The CCI executive team can do the following to close an IPL/BCCI deal:
1) A guaranteed undertaking on minimum matches of not just IPL T20, but also ODIs, Test cricket etc to be held at CCI over the next five years. Only this can ensure the "return of cricket" in a genuine sense, instead of just a one-off summer circus.
2) CCI to provide the BCCI and its sponsors 50 per cent of CCI pavilion seats only. The balance 50 per cent of seats for CCI members and their families (to be determined on a lottery, payable for a nominal discounted amount by the member --- a maximum of two tickets per member).
3) The balance of CCI members/families to be accommodated in any part of the stadium free of cost of member's own choice, with no first come first serve principle. It should be offered as an entitlement, which they are free to exercise, with two free tickets per member.
4) BCCI and its sponsors to be subjected to similar regulations as applicable to CCI members (so if CCI members' children under 18 are not allowed in the main hall and clubhouse, even the same must apply to sponsors), dress code etc.
5) BCCI and its sponsors should pay revised commercial market rates for food, drinks and any other service, and only club members should be allowed the subsidized rate for F&B.
In fact, the easiest way out would be to create the globally popular "temporary stands" which can be offered to sponsors near the pavilion, thus killing two birds with one stone. But I have no idea if these guys have the time or inclination to work it out.
I think the CCI members love their cricket, and want it back, but they do not want a bully himself scurrying under several charges, to set them humiliating conditions and display a talk-down attitude. In fact, they are politely telling Modi to not go through the revolving door on someone else's push.
Mr Modi, there are some things money can't buy.
