Gavaskar must rock IPL boat
Finally, Sunil Gavaskar gets a free hand to change everything that he thought to be wrong with the game he once played and later analysed as a commentator and a columnist. Not tied by a BCCI contract now, as was the case till yesterday when he had the microphone in his hand, the batting legend no longer needs to be guarded in his views or action.
As the man in-charge of the IPL, for the duration of Season 7, Gavaskar will be a busy man. He needs to do a lot in a short span of time.
With the clock ticking, Gavaskar can leave the day-to-day logistical management and the other meet-and-greet ceremonial duties to Ranjib Biswal, the IPL chairman (that once powerful position has suddenly been downgraded). Because he needs to be alert on his new assignment as there two teams in the competition whose owners are part of an unfinished inveWith the kind of faith shown in him by the country’s highest court, Gavaskar needs to start with lifting the carpet and sweeping years of filth that had been hidden under it. Once that’s done, the IPL needs honest administrative and financial ‘benchmarking’. Ideas needs to be borrowed from older, matured leagues as this high-stakes tournament can no longer work on a rulebook that was rewritten when the BCCI insiders began milking the T20 cashcow.
The court has given Gavaskar the power to appoint experts and also issue pink-slips. This means he can channel in neutral professionals to draft a new IPL template. To begin with, he must make an IPL meeting seem less like an India Cements boardroom.stigation involving bookies, taBut to be fair to Gavaskar, the one small change that can hugely reform the IPL isn’t quite in his hand. It’s only if the BCCI collectively decides to dispense with the constitutional amendment that saw N Srinivasan buy the Chennai Super Kings that will kick-start the long-promised-but-much-delayed clean-up operation.
However, Gavaskar can trigger a debate among the teams and put pressure on the BCCI to streamline the IPL. For long franchise representatives, in hushed and conspiratorial tones, have spoken of the CSK bias in key decisions and regulations. Here’s hoping that now those whispers will now turn into voices of dissent.
Gavaskar, since his international debut in early 70s in fact, has toggled between being righteously opinionated and mysteriously oblivious. Many see him as a fault-finder rather than a problem-fixer. Up ahead for the 64-year old lie two paths. One road is the ‘ban cheergirls’ and ‘stop post-match parties’ one. But he needs to take the other road. He needs to rock the boat.
Gavaskar doesn’t need to be an establishment’s man. He needs to be the establishment.
Sandeep is National Sports Editor based in New Delhi.
sandeep.dwivedi@expressindia.comped conversations and even underworld links.
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