Meeting significant but will anything concrete emerge?

Given the special status that cricket has in the country, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has enjoyed the rank of an autonomous body. Whereas other federations have frequently been dictacted to by the government because they are dependent on it financially, the BCCI has never had to bother about such things, being easily the richest sports body in the country. There has been very little interaction between the BCCI and the Central government and at most times, this has been confined to the BCCI making the mandatory request for foreign exchange. Sure, sometimes when the Indian team has performed abysmally in international competitions, questions are raised in Parliament and the Sports Ministry may call for a report. But even if this is done, it has generally been an eyewash and everything is soon forgotten by the politicians, pre-occupied as they are by more serious matters.

Given this background, the meeting to be held at New Delhi on Thursday assumes significance. And then of course the circumstances under which the Sports Minister SS Dhindsa has asked cricketers and officials to make it a point to be present at the meeting makes the whole exercise very important to put it mildly. The match fixing allegations have rocked the cricketing world and India remains a focal point, not only because the current scandal reportedly had its genesis in this country but also because increasingly there are suspicions that Indian players too may be involved. Over the past week, Dhindsa has assured Parliament that the government is determined to ``get to the bottom of the truth'' in the matter. The tabling of the Chandrachud report was the first step taken in this direction. It is another matter that the contents of the report were dismissed as `a damp squib' and `old hat'. The BCCI meeting, convened by ICC president Jagmohan Dalmiya in Calcutta at about the same time, also failed to tackle the issue head on.

So it is but natural that on the eve of the New Delhi meeting the mood in cricketing circles is sceptical. Not many expect anything earth shattering to emerge from the deliberations, pinning more hopes on the ICC meeting in London on May 2 and 3. That does not however mean that sparks will not fly at the meeting. For one thing, some of the eminent personalities attending the meeting are not exactly good friends. Secondly, so many charges have been hurled thick and fast over the past fortnight that many of the protagonists may use the occasion to settle scores. A lot would depend on the self discipline that the invitees observe and the manner in which the meeting is conducted by Dhindsa who has made it very clear that he is not in favour of cricket and cricketers getting special status. In fact, he is keen that other sports should get better treatment.

The meeting was originally called to discuss the recent poor performances of the Indian team but in the wake of the match fixing scandal, the priorities were changed. The officials likely to attend the meeting are Jagmohan Dalmiya, BCCI president AC Muthiah, BCCI secretary JY Lele, former BCCI presidents IS Bindra, Madhavrao Scindia, NKP Salve and Raj Singh Dungarpur, BCCI vice president and Union Minister Manohar Joshi, Delhi Cricket Association president and Union Minister Arun Jaitley and former BCCI secretary C Nagaraj. The cricketers who have been invited include former Indian captains MAK Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Bishen Bedi, Sachin Tendulkar and Md Azharuddin, former Test players Chetan Chauhan and Kirti Azad (both of whom are MP's), former coaches Anshuman Gaekwad and Madan Lal and current coach Kapil Dev. The government has also invited Dronacharya award winners Gurcharan Singh, Desh Prem Azad and Ramakant Achrekar. The present captain of the Indian team, Sourav Ganguly was also invited but expressed his inability to attend because of his engagements with English county Lancashire.

There is much talk that the CBI should be asked to probe the betting and match fixing allegations in Indian cricket particularly in the wake of widespread criticism of the Chandrachud report. Though this is on not on the agenda of the meeting, it could still be the subject of discussion. If the government takes a decision on this issue, it would be a major development.