The Supreme Court judgment expelling the top brass of the Board of Cricket Control of India could infuse new energy into the sports administration regime in India.
The union sports ministry has to take the initiative to urge other sports associations to implement the recommendations of the Justice Lodha Committee. Those who have been monopolizing sports associations for decades should be shown the door.
Justice R M Lodha recommends that no one should helm a sports association after 70 years of age. Many of the associations can be cleansed if the recommendations of the committee are implemented. Many groups including Olympians have approached the apex court seeking the implementation of the recommendations. It is a welcome initiative.
The sports associations are seen as cash cows by many of the office-bearers. They win elections by forming associations and cherry-picking voters. The Delhi & District Cricket Association is the best example of this trend. A coterie has been controlling the association by forming their own clubs under fake names and listing non-existent voters.
Many of the sports administrators sneak in their own folk to the district associations and ensure the control in the state association and eventually the national association.
It is a pathetic sight when people with no connection to sports control the bodies that decide the fate of our sportspersons. Once an office-bearer at an association, these people try to retain their posts for a lifetime.
Former sportspersons should be added to the voters’ list of the associations concerned if we were to stop the malpractices in elections to the associations. Winners of Khel Ratna, Arjuna and Dronacharya awards could be considered for enlisting as voters. They could be the voice against malpractices in the associations.
The sports ministry should put pressure on the associations to amend their constitutions to ensure transparent voting.
Former PM Rajiv Gandhi had amended the Constitution to bring down the voting age to 18 from 21. If such changes can be brought about in the general election, the government would not find it much difficult to introduce effective changes in internal elections of the sports associations.
Sports administrators who are forced to leave the associations often retain their control through their wives, children or other relatives. They squeeze in their loyalists by using their influence in the association. This shadow rule often goes unchallenged.
Another disturbing trend in sports administration is the practice of selecting honorary presidents. Suresh Kalmadi and Abhay Singh Chautala were recently selected as honorary presidents of the Indian Olympic Association. This sounds like a titular role but they enjoy all privileges of the association and even go on foreign jaunts at the expense of the association.
The ruling by the Supreme Court is a blessing in disguise for the sports ministry. The ministry should use this golden opportunity to cleanse the sports associations by implementing the Lodha Committee recommendations.
(The writer is a former director of Sports Authority of India Sports Medicine and president of Indian Federation of Sports Medicine.)
