The Big Story: Operation clean-up

I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

Justice RM Lodha may not have sought inspiration from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s 19th-century poem The Brook, but he did appear to echo its theme when asked if the future of Indian cricket was clouded after the Supreme Court’s order on Monday to remove the Board of Control of Cricket in India’s top two functionaries from their posts. “Administrators come, administrators go, but ultimately it is for the benefit of the game,” said Lodha, who headed a court-appointed committee that made several recommendations to remedy the deep-rooted problems of corruption in India’s cricket association. “The game will flourish, I am very sure.”

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Whether the Supreme Court was right in appointing an 87-year-old senior counsel, Fali Nariman, to pick a panel of administrators to supervise the functioning of the BCCI while also disallowing the board from having office-bearers older than 70 is another debate. Whether the Supreme Court was guilty of judicial overreach is a pointless discussion at this point. Despite its obvious problems, Indian cricket has flourished over the past two decades.

This judicially ordered shake-up may just do wonders for cricket administration, but there are other sports in the country that are in greater need to scrutiny. The Indian Olympic Association is at loggerheads with the Sports Ministry over the appointments of two tainted men to honorary posts. The All India Football Federation has been unable to nurture an Indian team strong enough to qualify for the World Cup since 1950. The Indian hockey team has not won an Olympic medal since 1980. Nearly every other sport apart from cricket is a failure in terms of administration.

Indian sports fans can only hope that the Supreme Court’s verdict will serve as a warning to other sports federations to clean up their acts. But then again, who is going to bother taking the AIFF, the IOA or Hockey India to court?

The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day’s big story

Karthikeya Date on the many questions that need answers after the Supreme Court removed the BCCI president on Monday.

Punditry

  1. In the context of the new army chief’s appointment, Happymon Jacob writes in The Hindu about why a divided army has far-reaching national security consequences. 
  2. In the Indian Express, Ashok Gulati suggests ways to tackle cash hoarders and make demonetisation more meaningful. 
  3. Renowned scholar Francis Fukuyama says in Mint says that the inability to agree on the most basic of facts is the direct product of an across-the-board assault on democratic institutions.

Giggles

Don’t miss

Vinita Govindarajan writes on how the second-worst drought in history has plunged Tamil Nadu farmers into despair.

“In a desperate attempt to draw the government’s attention to their plight, farmers in the city of Tiruchi stood with dead rats in their mouths in front of the collector’s office last week, demanding loan wavers and relief measures.

The situation in other districts is just as bad. “In Thiruvarur district, 14 farmers have died in the past month,” said G Sundaramoorthy, Thiruvarur district secretary of Tamil Nadu Farmers Association. “The crops have been drying up and farmers are unable to do anything about it. Some are getting very upset and dying of heart attacks. Others are worrying about their rising debts and committing suicide. In neighbouring district of Nagapattinam, 29 people died so far. Reports peg the total number of farmer suicides in the state at over 50.”