So, there’s to be no World T20 match next year in Bengaluru, one of India’s major cricket centres. Earlier, the inaugural match of the Women’s World Cup (which India won) was taken away. The Chinnaswamy Stadium hasn’t hosted a match since the stampede in June that killed 11 fans during the RCB celebrations following the IPL win.
Where does the home of Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Shanta Rangaswamy, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid go from here?
Speaking to a range of players and officials has been enlightening. The word that was used most often was ‘mess’. For some time now, the Karnataka State Cricket Association has had no President (after Raghuram Bhat was elected Treasurer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India), and no Secretary or Treasurer (after A. Shankar and E.S. Jairam respectively resigned following the stampede). The KSCA Constitution states that vacancies should be filled within 45 days.
Now there’s a glimmer of hope — elections that were to be held by September 30 are finally being held on November 30. In one corner is Test star Venkatesh Prasad and his team and in the other, media magnate Shanth Kumar and his team. Both men with clean records and an unblemished public image.
Shanth Kumar’s is, somewhat surprisingly, called ‘Team Brijesh’. This is Brijesh Patel, who is 73 and cannot contest because he is above the age limit of 70. “This is just to say I am supporting them,” Patel says, “Just a message.”
Whoever is elected will have to deal with two important issues: one, practical, focused on the game itself, and the other the proxy control that seems to afflict many cricket associations in India. This latter is the back-seat driving that has got around some of the Supreme Court’s amendments to the Lodha Commission recommendations. Rather like in politics where a chief minister’s wife takes charge to keep the seat warm, as it were (like when Lalu Prasad Yadav’s wife succeed him as Chief Minister in Bihar). Cricket officials learn from the best!
Niranjan Shah’s son Jaydev Shah extended his family’s hold over Saurashtra cricket as did N. Srinivasan’s daughter Rupa in Tamil Nadu. Niranjan had been secretary of the Saurashtra Cricket Association for 43 years, long enough for many to wonder if the name should be changed to ‘Shahrashtra’. By one calculation, nearly a third of the national associations are run by sons, relatives, or those beholden to former officials or politicians.
Influence-peddling for political, personal, business reasons is a cricketing speciality; you only have to follow the career of some officials to understand this. Cricket-loyalty trumps party-loyalty even, and not in a nice way. Getting around the constitution has become a national sport, and sports associations are masters at it. There’s more politics in cricket than vice versa, which is a pity.
Decades ago, Brijesh Patel ended a fiefdom and brought a breath of fresh air to the KSCA when he led a group of cricketers to oust C. Nagaraj who had been in office in various capacities for years. Now he says, “You know cricketers don’t always make the best administrators. There are plenty of examples in India.”
E.S. Jairam, who resigned following the stampede, is the Shanth Kumar group’s secretary. The secretary in Prasad’s team is former cricketer Sujith Somasunder.
“Our focus is on the game,” says Prasad, “The stadium built by a giant like Chinnaswamy is in a mess. The cricketing structure needs to be strengthened. The YSR and Group II league which have not been held in recent years need to be revived. Likewise with women’s league cricket.”
Whoever comes to power will also have to deal with the government, especially regarding the return of top flight cricket to the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Past experience has shown that the authorities, both at the civic and governmental level, are not above demanding their pound of flesh for what they see as favours rendered to the cricketing body.
Fans — the game’s biggest stake-holders although they are seldom treated as such — will have to bide their time before some of its sheen returns to the KSCA. The elections are a start, but progress will depend on how the two important issues are addressed.
Published – November 12, 2025 12:26 am IST
