By Ashis Ray

Port of Spain (Trinidad), March 27 (IANS) It was amusing to hear Sharad Pawar speak of "harsh measures" to counteract India's debacle in the World Cup. It appears it hasn't occurred to him that a primary requirement is for him and his cronies to prepare to step down and transfer the administration of cricket to a combination of professional managers and experts.

Being the son-in-law of a former Test player is no qualification for holding a post in the Mumbai Cricket Association, let alone the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Pawar has confessed to having limited knowledge about cricket. Moreover, he has admitted to parliament that he devotes only a few hours a week to affairs of the BCCI. The running of an establishment earning $400 million a year cannot be a part-time occupation.

Where at least a third of the Indian population are fixated with the sport and the union government draconically issued an ordinance to force broadcasters, who had paid significant sums of money to secure television licences, to share cricket coverage with Doordarshan - as if airing live coverage of matches was a matter of national emergency - the people of India have a right to expect the best organisation governing the game. Equally, the BCCI have to be accountable to the public.

The BCCI constitution is obsolete, deserves to be shredded and a fresh start made. In the modern world, the Pawars, Dalmiyas and Bindras, or politicians, businessmen and civil servants serving as so-called honorary office bearers, are a painful anachronism. Where all successful cricket boards have corporatised, for the BCCI to resist this is nothing other than sustenance of vested interests.

It's not that the players, captain and coach can be absolved of responsibility. If some are distracted from concentrating on their cricket because of commercial diversions, then who encouraged them on this path? The BCCI. Even today, payments for Test and ODI appearances are substantially linked to the earning from a sponsor's logo on the kit. Therefore, to make them scapegoats without fundamentally reviewing the cricketing structure would only amount to papering over cracks. A sanctimonious statement from one of Pawar's lackeys referred to the need for "introspection" - as though this is a crisis facing a political party after a heavy electoral defeat! Widespread action not introspection is what's demanded.

Where the union cabinet approved the executive order to compel private broadcasters to provide live coverage of cricket to Doordarshan without batting an eyelid and all shades of political opinion, in a typically populist vein, unanimously ratified this in parliament, the union sports minister is not only entitled to ask the BCCI for a explanation about India's catastrophic defeat, but to ensure real issues are not swept under the carpet. There is already a hint in Pawar's remarks that he may be gunning for Greg Chappell - an easy target, if one plays the nationalist card. Lalu Prasad, though, has no business to open his mouth on cricket.

A crisis was mounting for a while. What would happen to Indian cricket after the inevitable retirement of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman was the concern? There is no suitable replacement on the horizon. Virender Sehwag demonstrated extraordinary promise in his first five years in India's colours, but has thereafter become inconsistent. Yuvraj Singh is yet to prove himself in testing conditions. And the cyclone, now, seems to have struck earlier than anticipated.

The Cricket Club of India is a small but significant example of how an institution, if efficiently operated, can be a shining instance of success. The BCCI needs to emulate this formula. The cricket board can still be constituted with affiliated associations and act as a board of governors - meeting from time to time to consider policy matters - but executive powers must pass to professional, informed management. Once this happens, the rest will gradually fall into place. To do otherwise, would be short-sighted and no remedy of the malaise that's flared up.

(Ashis Ray is author of the recently launched "One-Day Cricket: The Indian Challenge" (Harper Collins), which can be bought online on www.ians.in)