World Cup, celebration of Chaotic Success

India keeps the Cricket World afloat

    India’s hegemony over international cricket is fascinating, especially the manner in which it has come about. Discussions around whether the BCCI is a benevolent dictator, or just a dictator, prompt equal debate. And a great deal of emotion. Benevolence is certainly still in evidence, but are the whims of dictatorship rising?

    The World Cup promises to be an extravaganza of co-ordinated chaos, a celebration of the ability to throw an entire jigsaw into the air and watch as (most of) the pieces land in the right place and fit together.

    There were multiple false-starts before the fixtures were finally announced two months before the first game, and then nine of them were changed a few days later. Tour operators around the world were despairing and are now scrambling to put packages together for the hardy, non-Indian supporters keen to travel, mostly from England.

    But the tournament isn’t really about the fans on the ground because it doesn’t need to be. Indian fans will pack every stadium for their teams matches, and would do so many times over despite woeful conditions and lack of facilities. Many of the other games, too, will be sold out. It makes no difference if there is one, overflowing toilet per 1000 fans, you can’t take your own water into the venue and you can’t get a pass-out to buy something to eat outside.

    The vast majority of the revenue comes from television and digital rights and, to be sure, the production will be superb with more cameras and innovations than ever before. Nobody of significance will question the hosts and nobody will express any doubt that the BCCI are the hosts. Although it is, of course, an ICC event.

    It wasn’t the case the last time the event was staged (mostly) in India in 2011 when Haroon Lorgat was Chief Executive of the ICC. Being a career finance man, Lorgat was determined to do the job as professionally as possible, to maximise ICC revenue. It was, after all, an ICC event. 

    This included a pre-tournament audit of all the Indian stadia which were to host to matches. What was the capacity, how many regular seats, how many corporate boxes and so-on. In order to complete a proper budget and project net income, such information was essential and, ordinarily, standard.

    Apparently, this did not sit well with the BCCI and its state unions. Afterall, if the declared capacity of a venue was 45,000, and there were, in fact, seats for 49,000, a potential home-union ‘commission’ of around $350,000 was at stake if all the tickets were sold, which they would be. Perhaps not all through official channels. Add an extra zero if there were a dozen VIP corporate suites unlisted on the official manifesto.

    BCCI umbrage to Lorgat’s audacity led to a reduction of fixtures on India’s next tour to South Africa, in 2013, to the bare minimum, when Lorgat had become CEO of Cricket South Africa. It was a pay-back which cost CSA in the region of R400 million. Fair play to the BCCI – they did publicly warn CSA that appointing Lorgat after his ICC tenure would not be in their best interests.

    So, you don’t mess with the BCCI. Not then, and increasingly, not since. Their control of international cricket was recently upgraded from ‘dominant’ to complete when their share of ICC global revenue was increased to 38% with the next highest, just under 5%, belonging to the other two, former members of the Big Three – England and Australia. There is now, veritably, only a Big One.    

    Some say it is easier to care about others when you, too, are in need of care. A few others, wealthy philanthropists, take the time to reinvest their finance into social causes. But for the most part, the world – or sports world, anyway - heads in one direction. That being, it is much more difficult to care when you don’t have to. And the BCCI simply doesn’t have to.

    As Anil Kumble famously said during the Dilip Sardesai Memorial Lecture back in 2015, “…with power comes responsibility.” He was talking about the BCCI’s increasing control over the destinies of the other, major cricket-playing nations.

    The BCCI’s justification for claiming such a vast percentage of the game’s income is reasonable enough. They are, in fact, responsible for generating considerably more than 38% of it. What do they do to create such a mighty flow of cash? They are evidently not super-efficient administrators or creative innovators. And the national team hasn’t won an ICC event since that World Cup in 2011.

    Without rancour or bias, the answer is – not much. Except have more people than any other country in the world, most of whom follow cricket, many passionately. They provide more eyeballs for the game than the rest of the world combined and they have more bums prepared to sit on seats encrusted with crow droppings than any other country in the world.

    And, like every other cricket-playing country, the game in South Africa will be kept financially afloat for another three years by the Indian tour at the end of the year. And for that, we thank them profusely. And promise not to question them, about anything, ever again. Thank you, also, for the SA20, which you gave us with your IPL Franchises, just in case. Benevolence is a great gift.